Chains of the Moon
by Aljan Moonfire
Summary: The Saigo no Getsuga Tensho was too strong, and instead of simply losing his powers, something else happens to Ichigo - something no one could have expected. He won't be the only one affected either. The Elemental Countries will never be the same again. AU.
1. Prolouge: An End and a Beginning

_**Aljan Moonfire does not own Bleach or Naruto**_

"Normal Speech."

'Normal Thoughts.'

"**Demonic/Godly/Summon Speech.**"

'**Demonic/Godly/Summon Thoughts.**'

"_Otherworldly Speech."_

'_Otherworldly Thoughts._'

**

* * *

**

**Prologue: An End and a Beginning**

* * *

Ichigo couldn't resist the soft sigh of relief that left his lips as he raised his face to the sky. The peaceful blue color, occasionally interspersed with small, fluffy white clouds, gave lie to the fierce battle that had just ended.

Aizen was finally defeated.

He almost couldn't believe it. It had ended almost anticlimactically in a way, all of it over with a single attack. Before Aizen, before Rukia, everything had been so simple. Even if he could see ghosts, other than that he had considered himself just an average high-schooler, albeit with orange hair. So much had happened in the past year, he had pushed himself so hard, and now it was over.

He couldn't help but wonder to himself now, what was going to happen next? A light breeze ruffled his longer than usual hair, and he remembered. He was going to die. That attack, the Mugetsu (Moonless Sky), had completely annihilated Aizen. All that was left was the small orb of the Hogyoku, lying there, so innocently, in the center of the immense crater that the attack had left behind.

He had known, even as he had used it, what would happen. Zangetsu (Slaying Moon) would have never told him if he hadn't passed his test though, he knew that. He also knew that his father couldn't have known either, or he never would've even suggested it. But perhaps that just meant that he was that much more powerful than his father.

When his father had used the Saigo no Getsuga Tensho (The Final Moon-Fang Heaven-Piercer) he had merely lost his powers. Ichigo, he was going to die, and he knew it, had accepted the consequences. The strength of the attack is, was, far too much for even a Shinigami (Death God) to handle. He probably had less than an hour left before his body would begin to disintegrate.

He supposed Aizen had been right in a way. The power he had gained, had he kept it, would have made him a god among Shinigami. But such strength always came with a price, and he would pay it. He bent over and picked up the small, marble-like orb before him and raised it to be level with his eyes.

"So much pain, so much sorrow," he murmured to himself, "and just for power – just for this..."

His thoughts were then broken by the soft tread of wooden geta on the ground behind him. "Kurosaki-san."

He blinked slightly in surprise, turning to look behind himself, "Urahara." He returned, surprised. 'I didn't even sense him. It must have already begun…_" _

"It's over then?" Urahara asked, surprised himself, and he looked over the destruction of the local landscape. 'It seems my intervention won't be necessary._'_ He mused to himself.

"Yes." Urahara raised an eyebrow slightly at the sad tone the boy answered with.

"What's wrong?" he asked, unable to stem his curiosity.

Ichigo hesitated for a moment before replying. "I'm dying, Urahara."

The man just blinked in confusion. "What?" he asked, stunned.

"The Saigo no Getsuga Tensho," Ichigo began, "Is too much, too strong." He sighed harshly, griping the Hogyoku in a tightly clenched fist, "even for me. My Shinigami powers have already begun to disappear. Within an hour or so my body will follow." At Urahara's stricken expression, he gave a slight smile. "It was my choice to do this," he attempted to reassure the man. "And now my family, my friends, are safe; and Aizen is dead."

As if to give credence to this declaration he opened his fist and held it out towards the Shinigami before him, the dark orb of the Hogyoku displayed to his gaze. Urahara reached out and took the small, but immensely powerful device from the teenager and examined it for a moment before nodding and tucking it in a pocket in the folds of his jacket.

He then returned his attention to the boy, no, the man before him. He couldn't think of anything to say. Whatever he said, whatever he did, Ichigo was still about to die. And it was his fault. He had made the Hogyoku. He had dragged Ichigo into all of this in the first place. He was the one who had created this whole mess to begin with, and now Ichigo was going to die to clean it up for him.

He finally spoke then, eyes just as sad as the man before him. "I – I'm so very, very sorry, Ichigo."

"It's alright." Ichigo said after a moment. Then he turned and once again resumed his contemplation of the sky.

.-.

Urahara left him to his thoughts then, quite unable to stand the silence as unbearable guilt continued to eat at his chest, but he returned to the site of that final battle around half an hour later to find Ichigo still standing there, looking up at the sky.

"Kurosaki-san." He said again, slightly uncertain about interrupting the fifteen year-old's thoughts.

Ichigo's eyes widened in surprise as Urahara's voice broke the silence once again and turned to look at him over his bare shoulder. "Urahara…" he replied, and then went on to voice a thought that had occurred to him. "Where is everyone?"

"They've all gone home." Was the reply. Then a wry smile crossed the man's face as he continued. "It looked like they wanted to talk to you, but found you difficult to approach."

Ichigo looked a bit skeptical at this. "Don't tell me you've wiped their memories…" he returned.

"No. I didn't do anything this time." He said sadly.

"Oh. Good." Urahara couldn't help but look at him oddly at that, but Ichigo continued. "I don't want to hide anything from them anymore. When you go back, will you tell them everything?" he asked.

The blond man nodded slowly in reply. "Yes, I'll do that."

Ichigo nodded in satisfaction at the reply, then stilled when the shopkeeper continued to speak, "I have sealed the Hogyouku again." He said seriously. "I've hidden it away in a place only I know about under multiple sealing kido of the strongest kind. Hopefully, something like this will never have to happen again."

Ichigo just blinked as he absorbed that, before nodding, "Yeah."

He then turned and sat down on a nearby boulder, one of such an awkward shape it had probably been ripped from the ground by his and Aizen's fight. The silence that then filled the air between the two was comfortable, and rested much easier on the older man's heart then the one that had emerged at the end of their previous conversation.

Then that too was broken by a surprised female voice from behind them. "K - Kurosaki-kun?"

They both turned to look behind themselves, discovering that Orihime had been the one to speak. But she wasn't the only one there, though she seemed to be the only one that was uninjured. Renji, Chad, and Ishida were also there, their arms and torsos covered in multiple bandages, pristine white in color. Bringing up the rear was Rukia, the petite girl dwarfed by her companions, one arm in a sling.

Ichigo just stared for a moment surprised by their presence. "Inoue, Ishida, Rukia, Chad, Renji…" he said, rising to his feet with a smile, "What are you guys doing here? Should you really be up and about already?" he asked, concerned.

Rukia, of course, quickly retorted, "I could say the same for you. What -"

Before she could finish her question, Orihime's trembling voice interrupted her. "It… it really is you…" she said, voice wavering as happy tears pooled in her eyes. "Your hair's so long… I wasn't sure… I'm so glad… so glad…" she trailed off, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"What's with that face, Inoue?" Ichigo replied, still smiling slightly. Then he reconsidered as he glanced at the shaggy orange locks that partially obscured his line of sight, "Well, it's true that my hair is kinda shaggy -" His voice cut of mid-sentence as he collapsed to the ground, pain shooting through his body in unbearable bursts.

Shocked by the abrupt change, his friends could only look on with horror for a moment as he hit the ground harshly, unable to catch himself. As they called out his name in concern, he couldn't restrain the first scream that ripped itself from his throat. Then his own hearing faded out and his wavering vision caught only glimpses of his concerned friends as his body curled instinctively against the agony ripping through his body.

Then all of the attention he could spare was seized by the sight of his right hand, previously tearing at the soil beside him, beginning to disintegrate, the reishi (spirit particles) that made up his soul tearing off and vanishing into the atmosphere. Soon enough his entire hand was gone. Then the pain intensified even more and even though he could no longer hear, he could practically feel his vocal chords tearing under the strain.

Thankfully, that was when he passed out.

.-.

Unfortunately for them, his friends were not so lucky. All they could do was watch helplessly as their friend and leader's body tore itself apart before their very eyes. In the end, there was nothing left of the teen, even what clothes that were left on his body after the battle dispersing into the air.

Even as they collapsed to the ground they couldn't believe it. Renji was the first to snap out of his shock, and when he did, he rounded on Urahara, demanding an explanation. When Urahara obliged the rest came far enough back into reality to listen.

But even as they did so, reluctantly accepting the explanation – the same one Ichigo had given to the man earlier – they were only able to do so because they had watched the boy's body tear itself apart before their very eyes.

And so, both Aizen and Ichigo died, and the Soul Society was once again safe. Over the course of the bare year that Ichigo had been a Substitute Shinigami he had saved both the Soul Society and the Human World multiple times. This was not forgotten by anyone, and his name soon became legendary, his exploits taught of in the Shinigami Academy.

It was small comfort to those who had known him though, and they mourned his passing for a very long time.

Unknown to them though, this was just the beginning.

.-.

Ichigo woke up.

That, in and of itself, was probably what surprised him the most. He blinked slowly, and then blinked again when nothing changed. He couldn't see anything. Frowning slightly, he attempted to push himself into a sitting position and succeeded, much to his surprise.

Then he tried to touch what ever he was sitting on and felt nothing beneath his fingers; the only reaction he had was a brief blink of surprise. '_What… is going on..?' _he wondered hazily.

Then he collapsed back into his previous position, eyes drifting closed. '_What happened… to me..?'_ his last thoughts blurred and faded into nothing as sleep once more overtook him. '_Didn't I… die..?'_

.-.

When Ichigo woke again he was just as hazily surprised as he had been the first time. But this time, he was not alone.

Hovering before him was what could only be termed as monster. A spiky mane of hair completely devoid of any natural color covered its head and shoulders, spiking out past what anything else could do naturally. Slightly curved blood red horns arced out of said mane of hair to point to either side of its head.

The hair reached downwards to the creature's waist, framing a ghastly face and chest that resembled an unwrapped mummy in appearance, all unnaturally colored skin and jutting bones. Thankfully, the rest of the fiend was clothed in a pure white robe-like garment that only seemed to emphasize the unnaturalness of the being. The only other distinguishing feature was the blood-colored claws that tipped the ends of its emaciated hands.

A sharp tanto was clenched in its teeth, and Ichigo resisted the urge to jump as it reached up to remove the weapon from its mouth. A steaming breath emerged from the creature's mouth as it exhaled, and then it spoke. "**Kurosaki Ichigo**," It rasped in a reverberating voice that seemed as if it had not spoken in millennia, "**As you may have guessed, you are dead.**"

Unnerved, and slightly frightened, though he'd never admit it, Ichigo could only nod in reply. Then it continued, "**But the way you died was very…unique, as you might have guessed. It has been a very long time since anyone has had the resolve and raw power to die in such a way, knowing what would happen.**"

Ichigo nodded again at this, slightly curious now as to where this was going. "**As the King of your native dimension owed me a favor, when you died, he gave your soul to me.**"

Ichigo couldn't help the shock that ran trough his being at that. "_What?" _he choked out. Then he blinked in surprise at his own voice, the sound of it much lower and stranger than usual.

"**You are a very interesting child.**" It commented idly as it observed the confused spirit. "**I am the King of my own dimension, and I have a use for you.**" He told him.

"_A use?_" Ichigo asked warily, still unnerved by the situation.

"**Yes, a use.**" It confirmed.** "I am a veritable god, and I rule over my dimension completely, instead of leaving it to humans the way your former dimension's King does. However, I have chosen to keep my hands out of the affairs of the living**.** Thus, unless I am specifically called upon by them, I am unable to interfere. You will be my way around that.**"

"_Wait, wait, wait, wait_." Ichigo interrupted. "_What do mean by all this dimension stuff? And why am I getting a bad feeling about whatever 'task' you seem to have ready for me?_" he asked.

The 'King' seemed more amused than anything else by the questions, and relented and answered them. "**To answer your first question, there are innumerable dimensions out there, each one holding a universe that an individual King or Queen holds sway over. You know your dimension's King by many names I would suspect; Kami-sama, God, the King of Soul Society… I am known by many names also, given to me by the humans of my dimension. Shinigami-sama and Jashin are just two of those.**"

The Shinigami then paused for a moment before continuing, "**As for what your task is, you're probably getting a bad feeling, because it's going to be rather difficult.**" It deadpanned.

"_Well then, what is it_?" Ichigo asked, curious despite himself.

The being waved its arm to the side and a moving picture phased into being, a squalling baby being the focus of it. "**The main focus of your duty will be to keep this child alive, and I assure you that that will be much harder than it sounds.**"

Still slightly skeptical, Ichigo took a closer look at the infant. Bright blond fuzz, closer to being yellow than any natural shade of the color covered the child's head. As it was naked, it was also quite easy to tell that it was a boy. His eyes were squinted shut with the force of his cries, and empty gums were shown to the world by the wide open mouth. The oddest feature on the boy's face though, was the three small whisker-like marks on each of his cheeks.

Other than that though, it seemed to be a perfectly ordinary baby. "_Not seeing the difficulty here,_" Ichigo commented, "_Other than the fact that I'm dead_."

The Shinigami just smiled. It was a terrifying expression. "**You are far more than just a dead soul, boy,**" the being said, amused again, "**or have you not taken look at yourself yet?**" as he said this he made a swift gesture again and a full length mirror appeared before the soul.

As he stood and looked himself over with shock and slight awe, he couldn't believe that he was looking at himself.

He looked to be several years older than he remembered being, clearly in his late teens or early twenties. His lower face was completely hidden from sight by wisp-like, but opaque black bandages. The bandages continued downwards to completely cover his neck and upper chest, but were eventually hidden in turn by the dark red trench-coat-like jacket that enveloped his form, extending past his knees to where it ended in tattered white-tipped spikes. The bandages then continued out past the sleeves of the garment to envelop his hands in coverage.

Black hakama, just as dark and seemingly fragile as the bandages that clothed his lower face almost floated around his legs. Dark red geta sandals rested on his feet, almost matching the jacket in color.

The biggest surprise to him in his appearance though, was in the remaining details he had been avoiding thinking about. Gone was his signature bright orange hair, the spiky hair-style replaced with a long mane of pitch black locks that seemed to absorb the light around him, partly concealing his eyes from view. He couldn't help but be reminded of the form he had taken when he had used the Saigo no Getsuga Tensho. Speaking of which, even as he looked himself over he couldn't help but miss the sword that had always been a part of him.

Just as he formed the thought, the thin pitch black form of a sheathed - and wasn't that different? - Tensa Zangetsu (Heavenly Chains Slicing the Moon) faded into existence at his hip, the chain attached to the guard of the weapon extending to wrap around his waist like a loose belt, securing the weapon to his side. At the feel of the sword on his hip he gave a smile that was invisible behind his make-shift face-mask and gently wrapped his hand around the hilt for a moment in recognition before making to let go. But then he noticed some differences in the sword itself.

The previously swastica-like hilt and solid guard of the katana had changed the most. The guard had become an intricate and shadowy thing, the material that made it up shifting even as he examined it. The hilt had maintained its shape, but other than that it was almost unrecognizable, the miniature chains that covered every inch of it certainly making a difference.

As for the rest of the sword, he was slightly apprehensive about drawing it. And that was still the biggest surprise. Tensa Zangetsu had always been just Zangetsu's Bankai form. It had never needed a sheath before. He couldn't help but wonder what had changed. Was it even still Zangetsu? The sheath itself was a relatively plain thing, decorated only with a linked twin crescent moon motif near the guard.

He hesitated for a second before drawing it, but when he did he couldn't help the widening of his eyes. It was longer than before, ever so slightly thinner, but seemed to be stronger than ever, an impression that was only helped by the soft crimson-black glow that emanated from the blade. He quickly sheathed the weapon before replacing it on his waist. He then quickly shook his speculations to the back of his head and returned to his inspection of himself.

His skin was very pale where it could be seen, contrasting sharply with the dark colors of the outfit. Then he looked himself in the eyes and couldn't help the smile that crossed his face. Familiar honey eyes looked back at him, the same eyes that he could still remember so vividly staring back at him from both his mother's and Yuzu's faces. He was glad that that piece of home was still with him. He knew that this time, he wasn't going to be able to just go home at the end of the adventure.

Pushing aside the depressing realization that had come with the thoughts of his family, he quickly gave himself another once over, looking for any differences, but found none. Then he turned to the thing he had been trying so desperately to ignore, the veritable waves of crimson-edged shadows that seemed to practically emanate from his body as they absorbed what little surrounding light there was.

"_What the hell happened to me?_" he whispered to himself out loud as he stretched out a slightly trembling hand as if to touch his reflection.

Even as he did so, the almost forgotten King snapped his fingers, causing the mirror to disappear. "**What you have become, is something that can no longer be entirely quantified with the name Kurosaki Ichigo, for that is no longer what you are. When you merged with your own former Zanpakuto to utilize the Saigo no Getsuga Tensho, that is exactly what you did in its entirety. Your mortal body could no longer handle your own power, and so you died and reformed into this. What you have become, is a Zanpakuto with a complete soul.**"

The void-like space that surrounded the two beings filled with an oppressive silence as Ichigo – no, what used to be Ichigo – tried to come to terms with his new existence. Then the full description of what he was finally absorbed by his stunned brain. "_A Zanpakuto with a complete soul?_" he couldn't help but repeat.

"**Yes. Most zanpakuto are only a portion of an individual Shinigami's soul, and cannot exist without the Shinigami they are a part of. You though, are different. You are basically a whole, extremely powerful at that, soul that has been completely infused with the power of a zanpakuto, and as such are completely capable of existing by yourself.**" It smirked, yet another completely terrifying expression. "**What that means, basically, is that you, Ichigo, your zanpakuto, Zangetsu, and your nameless hollow half have become a single entity. What that means for your personality even I can't really predict.**"

Another shocked silence filled the air between the two beings. The Shinigami was content to let it sit for a moment but soon became inpatient with waiting. "**Moving on though, back to your task.**" At his interruption of the silence, as well as the subject of the interruption, the as of yet nameless Zanpakuto that had once been Ichigo once again gave the King his full attention. "**You will become the zanpakuto of this boy when he is born.**" The Shinigami told the zanpakuto.

"_How will I do that?_" asked the man. "_I thought you said that I don't need to be bound to anyone?"_

"**Yes, but that doesn't mean that you _can't_ bind yourself to another soul anyway. And this,**" it tilted its bushy head towards the picture of the baby once again, "**is one soul that will definitely need you.**"

The zanpakuto paused at the thought and then nodded again in response. "_Are going to tell me anything else about the kid then?_"

"**No. As long as you wait and are intelligent enough to put together all of the pieces I won't need to tell you anything more. And even if I do, you aren't exactly alive even now so I'll tell you exactly what you need to know, when you need to know, and no sooner.**"

The soul slayer gave the King a glare, but eventually nodded his acceptance. "_Fine. I'll do it." _'_After all, it's not as if I have a choice…_'

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~ Author's Note ~

Well, as you might have guessed, this is why I haven't updated anything that I've already posted for a month. It was the plot bunny's fault *points accusingly at the prologue you just read*. It wouldn't leave me alone or let me write anything else, and well…yeah.

Hopefully though, this story will actually be rather epic. Or I at least hope it won't crash and burn. Cross your fingers everybody! Here we go…!

On another note though, the new zanpakuto(aka Ichigo)'s outfit is supposed to be a cross between Ichigo's Final Getsuga form and Bankai form with a bit more color and Urahara's awesome geta sandals, except in red. Also, how do you like the sword? Hopefully when all put together and whatnot it's just as awesome as it looks it my head. Hopefully.

Read and Review please!

~ Aljan Moonfire ~

P.S. The first real chapter of this will be out soon. I'll post it as soon as I can. R&R!


	2. Chapter 1: The End of the Beginning

_**Aljan Moonfire does not own Bleach or Naruto**_

"Normal Speech."

'Normal Thoughts.'

"**Demonic/Godly/Summon Speech.**" - also used for jutsu, with translations in brackets.

'**Demonic/Godly/Summon Thoughts.**'

"_Otherworldly Speech."_

'_Otherworldly Thoughts._' - italics will also be used for both temporary and full flashbacks or dreams.

.-. - POV or scene change.

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**Chapter 1: The End of the Beginning**

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Namikaze Minato could only glare at the place the orange-masked man had been a mere moment ago, cursing himself for letting him get away. Then the loud roar of an angered beast and the cries of shouting shinobi broke into his thoughts. Jumping down off the Hokage Monument to land on one of the spikes that represented his own hair, he looked on with horror as the Kyuubi no Kitsune drew back its head and began to gather an immense amount of demonic chakra in its mouth.

'This is...!'

.-.

In the very midst of the fighting, Sarutobi Hiruzen collapsed to one knee, exhausted, even as the Kyuubi made to use that blasting attack again. "Ugh," He groaned as he looked up at the beast in horror. 'It's going to use that again…?_'_

Just as he finished the thought though, a familiar voice called out the name of an equally familiar attack. "**Kuchiyose no Jutsu!**" (Summoning Technique)

Gamabunta appeared directly above the giant fox in an enormous poof of smoke and landed right on top of the beast, pining it in place. "The Yondaime!" shouted a nearby ninja in abject relief. And indeed, Minato was perched on the giant frog's brow, a grimace etched across his face.

He hesitated for only a brief moment as that man's words ran trough his mind – _"I am the ruler of this world. I have my ways."_ – before squeezing his eyes shut as if in pain. 'I'm so sorry…Kushina._'_

His eyes then snapped open, resolve shining through in his gaze. "Hold him there for a moment, Ok!" he called down to the summon.

"**Even I can't hold him here for long.**" The giant toad growled back as it struggled to hold fast against the Kyuubi's struggles.

"You won't have to," Minato called back. "I just need a lot of chakra to send away something this big!" Gamabunta was too distracted to do anything but grunt his agreement back.

Back down on the ground, Sarutobi's eyes widened in shock, as the blast the Kyuubi had been preparing grew visibly before his very eyes, despite Minato's efforts. Then, the fox completely disappeared in an explosion of white smoke, leaving Gamabunta and the other ninja behind to gape at the dispersing cloud.

"Minato… Where did he send the Kyuubi?" Sarutobi exclaimed.

Then an explosion echoed in the distance, a new sun appearing briefly on the horizon. "Over there…" he muttered, before dashing off towards the fading attack.

.-.

The site of the attack was completely destroyed, the building that had been there now only consisting of some scattered rubble. The Kyuubi glared down at the ruins, searching the destroyed surrounding landscape for the one that had sent it away from its original target.

Minato appeared to the side of the beast, out of its direct line of sight, panting harshly in exertion as he held his wife and son close to his chest. "I have to get a barrier up as soon as possible..!" he said softly. 'But I'm almost out of chakra!_'_

The red-headed woman in his arms stirred at his words, raising her head and attempting to prop herself up with trembling arms. "I…can still fight… Minato…" she panted out, the dark circles etched beneath her eyes giving lie to her words. Before the man could respond though, she gathered what chakra she had and molded it.

Chains of solid chakra erupted from her back, arching out of the fading smoke that still covered the trio to wrap around the Bijuu, securing it in place. The Kyuubi growled in recognition and anger at the familiar bindings.

The blond baby in Minato's arms began to cry, even as Kushina braced herself against the Kyuubi's struggles. "Kushina..." Minato said softly, amazed at her strength, even in her current state.

She didn't really reply, just turning her attention towards the bawling baby. "I…guess…we woke him…up." She panted. "Sorry…Naruto…"

"Kushina…" Was all Minato could say, even as she turned her attention back to him.

"I'm going…to draw the Kyuubi in…and then kill myself." She told him, eyes serious. "That way…I can put off…the Kyuubi's…resurrection." She grimaced slightly then, "It's the only way…my remaining chakra…can be of…use to you." Then she smiled, her eyes softening with love. "Thank you…for everything."

Minato's eyes widened in horror at her pronouncement, aghast at what she was suggesting. He was silent for a moment as he attempted to reclaim his voice, and then her name escaped his lips once again. "Kushina…you…you made me the Yondaime Hokage! You made me a man! You made this child's father!" he cried, a helpless feeling eating at his chest. His face was twisted with a sort of agony. "And yet…"

Kushina's eyes widened at his words, and then she smiled again. "Minato… don't look like that…" she said. "I'm…happy. You…love me…and," she turned her gaze to the still crying baby in her husband's arms, "it's his birthday today. And…most importantly…when…I think about…what…our life would be like… if I lived…I can only picture…happiness."

Minato almost flinched at that, tears gathering and then falling from his eyes, but Kushina continued, as if oblivious, "If there's…one thing that I…regret, it's that…I won't…get to see…Naruto grow up…"

Minato bowed his head over his child for moment, her words echoing in his ears, before raising his free hand to his face and speaking. "Kushina, there's no need for you to die with the Kyuubi." He said softly, strongly. "Use your remaining chakra so that you can be reunited with Naruto." He told her.

Kushina just looked up at him, confused. "Huh?"

He glared up at the Kyuubi as he responded, wiping away his tears, "I will seal your remaining chakra into Naruto with a Hakke Fuin (Eight Symbol Seal). Then I will take the Kyuubi down with me. Since I'm not a host, I can use the Shiki Fujin (Dead Demon Consuming Seal)."

His wife just stared at him with shock at his words. "But…with that seal you'll..!"

"There's one more thing," he interrupted her, "I can only seal half the Kyuubi's power. It's just not possible to seal it completely. It's not strategically feasible either." He then turned his attention to his wife. "If you take the Kyuubi down with you, there won't be a host until the Kyuubi is revived, and the Balance of the Bijuu will be thrown out of whack. With the Shiki Fujin, I can seal half the Kyuubi's power forever. And the other half…" he looked down at his now calm child, "I will seal within Naruto."

Kushina looked at him in horror, unable to believe what he was saying. "I know what you want to say…but Jiraiya-sensei talked about the coming revolution, and the catastrophes that will come with it! Today…I realized two things. The masked man who attacked you…he will bring some of those catastrophes down upon us." Then he returned his gaze to Naruto's small face. "And this child will be the one to stop him. As the host, he will clear the way to the future. For some reason, I just know."

Even as he said this, Sarutobi landed in the bare area created by the Kyuubi's destruction. Then as Kushina attempted to protest – "But…Minato..!" – he placed Naruto on the ground gently and began to perform the seals. Then, as he completed the last seal, he smiled. "Have faith in this child! After all, he is our son!"

He clapped his hands together in a final, abrupt movement. "**Shiki Fujin!**"

Behind him, the Shinigami appeared in a soundless wave of power, its appearance seen only by the one who had summoned it. That was where things took a twist, into something Minato couldn't have expected in a million years. The Shinigami, even before he could prepare everything needed, reached up and removed the ghostly tanto from its jaw. Then, shocking Minato even further, it spoke. "**So, it's time then?**" it asked no one in particular.

But then yet another being, one human, at least in appearance, appeared next to it. He would have even called him human, but then he spoke in reply to the Shinigami and dispersed any lingering notion of him being even remotely mortal. "_Yes. Apparently it is._" He said through the mask of bandages that covered his lower face. The shadows and raw power that emanated from the being only cemented that conclusion in the Hokage's mind.

"**You know what to do then.**" The Shinigami said, ignoring the one that had summoned it for the moment.

"_Yes._" Then the dark being approached the baby at his feet and, as Minato looked on in shock, stretched out a hand, one also wrapped in bandages, to touch his child. Then he paused, and glanced at the shinobi looking on in bewilderment. "_Don't worry. I'll be there to guide him._" He said, golden eyes glinting as his long dark hair fluttered in a soft wind that seemed to only affect him.

He then finished his aborted movement, touching a finger to the baby's forehead gently. The shadows that embraced the being's form glided down his arm, drawing the child into their hold as well. The being's physical form then dispersed into the shadows and the shades sunk slowly into the child's skin. As they did so the edges of the child's irises turned a soft honey color and its hair darkened a shade as it blinked sleepily.

Minato gaped silently at Naruto for a moment before turning to the Shinigami. "What the hell was that?" he asked confused and irate. 'That wasn't what this seal is supposed to do, I know that!'

"Minato?" Kushina asked him, also confused, though for a different reason. Her husband was seemingly screaming at thin air for no apparent reason after all.

"Ah!" he looked back at her, embarrassed. "It's nothing; don't worry." 'At least I hope it's nothing…'

The Shinigami just watched on, amused again. "**I believe you summoned me for a reason other than to ask me questions?**" it prodded, and then continued a bit more seriously, "**As he said though,**" he nodded at the now sleeping infant, "**Don't worry. With that one's help your son will become as strong as he needs to be.**"

Minato nodded uneasily back, but he doesn't have the time to pry any answers from an unwilling deity. Pushing what had just happened to the back of his mind, he returned his attention to what he was going to do before. He had no choice but to follow through on his premeditated actions.

.-.

Sarutobi could only watch helplessly from outside the barrier as Minato sacrificed himself for his village and country. He couldn't quite hear what the two people inside the barrier were speaking of, but it was clear what Minato was about to do.

"That seal..!" he exclaimed out loud, "Could it be? The Shiki Fujin?"

"Sandaime-sama!" exclaimed one of ninja hat had followed him. "What's going on?"

Sarutobi ignored him, attempting to push against the barrier that blocked him from joining the battle taking place right before his eyes. He cursed as the resistance against his entrance only increased. "It's no use… I can't get inside! They're planning on taking out the Kyuubi all on their own!"

He could only watch on as the first half of the Kyuubi's power was sealed. "It is the Shiki Fujin! I can't believe he's really using it!" The Third exclaimed softly. "But the Kyuubi's still here; was he not able to fully seal it? It is smaller, but…"

.-.

Back in the midst of the sealing, Minato slammed his hand to the ground, summoning a pedestal topped with a cushion. Whatever the Shinigami and that strange being had done, he hoped it wouldn't interfere with what he's about to do. He had no choice though; with the summoning of the Shinigami he had no choice but to follow through with it.

"Now for the Hake Fuin." He muttered. "To seal the rest of the Kyuubi inside of Naruto…"

Above him, the Kyuubi growled in frustration he discovered just how much he had shrunk. Then he saw the former Jinchuuriki's husband place their child on the platform. '_**That's a Ceremonial Pedestal!**_' the Kyuubi thought in anger, '_**Does he intend to seal me away again? In that child? Never!**_'

Then the Kyuubi saw its chance. Its former vessel's body finally began to break down, and distracted her husband from his task. "Kushina? Are you alright?"

That was when it struck, its meter-long claws extending and driving down towards the child. But just before it hit, it struck two entirely different bodies than its intended target. Both Minato and Kushina were impaled on the claw that would have struck their son.

"I told you…" Minato choked out, blood dripping down the corners of mouth, "This is something only a father can do…"

"Then… a mother…would be even better… right?" she smirked back.

"**You bastards..!**" the Kyuubi snarled from above them.

They ignored him. "…All right…" Kushina continued, glancing at her husband from the corner of her eye. "This is the first time…I've ever lost…an argument with you… So, you must… be serious…" she told him.

"Thanks, Kushina…" he answered, grateful. Then he raised his shaking hands together behind his wife's head and wiped some blood across one of them. Then he extended said bloody hand and some of the last of his remaining chakra to summon a toad the size of his torso. "**Kuchiyose no Jutsu!**"

"Whoa!" The toad yelled, shocked, "The Kyuubi! Yondaime-san, what are you doing?"

Minato just looked at him seriously. "Gamatora, I'm giving you…the key to the seal." He told the toad, his voice unsteady. "I want you to…take it to Jiraiya-sensei…and immediately…store it inside him…" he finished.

From outside the barrier, Sarutobi caught all of this and came to the obvious conclusion, 'I see… So, Minato is making is own son into a host in order to save the village.' He thought.

"Got it!" said the toad as he spun a large scroll in front of himself. "I'll get going now!" he then vanished in the same puff of smoke he had appeared with.

"That's a relief." Minato sighed, before turning back to his wife. "Kushina… we're not going to last much longer… I'll…give you the Hakke Fuin now… I want to seal the last of my chakra inside Naruto…as well…" his eyes then softened as he looked down at his son. "…You won't see him for awhile…so…tell him anything you want to say…now…"

Kushina also just looked at the boy for a moment, panting, before she spoke. "Naruto…don't be a picky eater… eat a lot…and grow up big and strong..! Take a bath… everyday…and keep warm… Don't… stay up late… get enough sleep… and… make friends… You don't need a lot… but… Just make a few true friends…you can really trust. And…I was never good at it…myself…but study hard…and practice your ninjutsu..! But…everyone has things their good at…and things they're not…so if…you have a hard time…don't let it get you down…"

She took a deep breath and then continued, trying not to cry, "…Respect your sensei and senpais (teachers and upperclassmen/seniors)…at the academy! Oh…and one more…important thing… about the 3 Ninja Vices… Be especially careful…when lending or borrowing money…and save what you earn…from missions… Also…don't drink until you're twenty…and drinking too much is…bad for you…so…take it easy! …And…as for women…I'm a woman…so I don't really understand…but anyway…there are only men and women…so you'll find yourself interested in women… But don't fall…for a strange one...! Find a woman… just like your mom!"

Then she had a thought, and made sure to voice it, "…And…speaking of…vices…watch out for Jiraiya-sensei..!" Then she paused again, swallowing even as the tears finally began to pour from her eyes. "Naruto…you'll face… many painful times…and hardships…I'm sure… But, just be…yourself…and have your dreams…and the confidence to make those dreams come true...!" She couldn't help but choke on her tears, closing her eyes as she continued, "I really…really…really, really..! Wish I could…be there…to teach you…so many more things… I really wish…I could be there…with you…longer…" he voice broke on soft sobs. "I love you…"

Minato listened to every word quietly, agreeing with it all, as she finished up. "Minato…I'm sorry…for talking so much…" she apologized sheepishly, but didn't bother to wipe away her tears.

He smiled. "No…it's alright…" he told her. Then he turned to his son and began to speak himself. "Naruto…as your father…I'll…just second everything your chatty mom said…" he said, smiling.

"**Hakke Fuin!**"

.-.

Sarutobi Hiruzen raised his hand to where the barrier had been and met no resistance. He slowly approached the plinth where the small baby continued to cry, as well as the unmoving bodies of his parents. Just as he reached the dais, Minato moved for the last time, pushing himself up off of his wife's body and collapsing to the side on his back.

"Minato!" cried the Sandaime, moving to hover over the Yondaime's body.

"Sandaime-sama? Is that you?" he asked softly.

"Yes." He choked out. He could tell that Minato was dying; that even if Tsunade were here he wouldn't have survived.

The younger man didn't respond immediately and tilted his head to look up the platform at his son. "Take care…of…Naruto…Sarutobi-sama." He requested. "And know that…even if I died for it…he…is the hero today… _He_ saved Konoha."

Sarutobi bit his lip. He had watched on as so many of his people had died before, had even ordered scores of them to their deaths, but it never got any easier. Never. "Yes." He finally responded. "I will." But Minato didn't reply. Sarutobi quickly checked his pulse, and almost cried when he found it to be still.

He bent his head in sorrow, the small group of ninja that surrounded him following suit.

The Yondaime Hokage of Konohagakure was dead.

.-.

**Four Years Later…**

Uzumaki Naruto was sleeping.

This wasn't exactly surprising – it was naptime after all – but if was rare to find the boy keeping still at all, and his caretakers relished the opportunity for a break. The child absolutely personified a 'bouncing ball of sunshine' – to the utmost extreme. The blond hair and expressive dark blue eyes only helped to enhance the impression.

But back to the original point; Naruto was sleeping. It was a deep sleep, one unlikely to be disturbed anytime soon. He was dreaming also. He had recently been introduced the wonder that is the Food of the Gods – Ramen – as well, so it was no surprise that he was dreaming about swimming in a giant bowl of it.

But that isn't all that important at the moment. Even as he rolled over on his side - muttering something about, "Miso and pork, please!" as he did so - something else stirred deep in his utmost subconscious and the deepest depths of his soul.

That something woke for the first time in just over three years.

.-.

The zanpakuto – one that had been known as both Kurosaki Ichigo and Zangetsu in his life-time – opened his eyes. He blinked once and then raised his head to look around the room he found himself in. He was rather surprised to find himself in the office of the Hokage.

'_So this is the form my wielder's mind has chosen to take…_" he thought idly. Turning to look out the wide window behind him, he saw the rest of the village spread out before him. The streets of the small city seemed blurred though, details obstructed and objects unfocused. He supposed it was to be expected though. The child he inhabited was only four years old after all.

There was a darkness about the town though, one that made him uncomfortable and uneasy. It was easy to tell where some of that feeling came from – the malicious red power of the Kyuubi buried deep under the streets of the city was obvious – but much of it came from the boy's own perception of the world around him.

Looking up, the sky above seemed just as out of focus as the rest of the child's mind and soul, but what could be discerned was gray and overcast. A light, perpetual and colorless rain fell endlessly from that blurred sky to the wavering streets, unvoiced tears drowning the city in a fog that blurred buildings together and disguised just how empty and run down the village actually was.

The parts of the zanpakuto that had once been Ichigo and Zangetsu – in other words almost all of the being's consciousness – winced inwardly at the sight of the endless downpour.

'_I hate the rain…_' he thought bitterly. For Ichigo, the answer as to why was obvious; his mother had been killed on a darkly raining evening, even as he tried to save a stranger, while protecting him. For Zangetsu, it was equally as apparent. Ever since sadness and loneliness first touched Ichigo's life; rain had clouded out the endless blue sky of his host's soulscape. The horror of being alone, battered endlessly by the cold rainfall with nowhere to take shelter from it… it was something he had hoped to never live through again.

Well, he supposed he wouldn't. Unlike in Ichigo's old soulscape, in this one he was at least able to enter the buildings. Then he felt the fox's power pulse. He narrowed his eyes. It seems he had a job to commence.

.-.

An unknown amount of time later – it was hard to keep track of time in a soul or mindscape - found the darkly dressed zanpakuto traveling steadily through the sewer system of his wielder's soulscape. The water that covered the floor of the sewer was deep, and would have reached up to his knees had he actually chosen to walk through the water.

As it was though, he trod on the air just above the water, the loose parts of his outfit and long hair swirling in a breeze that only affected him. Not a single ripple disturbed the surface of the water that he strode over. He couldn't help the sadness that he felt for his wielder at the sight though. He knew that this endless water was the form of all the tears the boy had accumulated over the course of his life – both shed and unshed.

He continued, unfettered, in his journey.

Soon enough he stood at the entrance of the Cage. Bars, relatively widely spaced – at least to one of his physical size - stretched up endlessly to disappear into a ceiling that never quite came into sight. Distance and space were just as unreliable as time in a soulscape. A seal infused with both human and inhuman chakra held the bars of the cell together firmly; far more firmly than any normal scrap of paper could do.

Behind both bars and seal, the form of an immense fox stirred to life. It rose to its feet and turned to face the zanpakuto, tails swishing behind it. On seeing who it was that had disturbed it, it couldn't help the surprise it felt. Another unfamiliar emotion that he ignored was also present. Had he recognized it, he my have known it as fear, or apprehension.

"**You…**" it growled menacingly. "**Who… What are you..?**" The shadows that emanated from the man intensified at the question, blotting out much of the space behind him from the fox's sight.

"_I am your host's zanpakuto._" He told the Kyuubi. "_I suppose you could also call me a Shinigami or a Hollow. That's what I was before after all, and I still retain that power._" He then shut his eyes. "_My wielder will be the first to call me by name though, so you may call me anything you like really._"

The Kyuubi, confused slightly by the indifferent and vague introduction, just growled again, "**A…Soul Slayer?**" it asked, attempting to get a handle on what exactly the being before it was first of all.

"_Yes. The manifestation of a soul that, once materialized by the wielder, may be used to purify and send spirits onto the next life. There is much more to me and my kind than that though, as I'm sure you can tell._"

The Kyuubi had understood that the moment it had felt the energy of the being before him. It was unlike anything it had ever felt before, unnerving and otherworldly. The scents of destruction and purity seemed to follow the 'zanpakuto' everywhere in equal measure. It just snarled wordlessly at the soul slayer, unwilling to respond.

"_I'm afraid however, that your power will become mine – and in turn that of my wielders' – here._" He told the beast, raising a hand to the seal before him. He quickly griped a small portion of the seal and tore a miniscule section off of the corner. Almost immediately a portion of the fox's power boiled out of the seal. It formed itself into another fox, much like the enormous one still trapped behind the remainder or the seal, except it had only one tail.

The zanpakuto quickly drew the sword that had rested, unnoticed until now, at his hip. As the miniature fox, one that still towered over him in terms of physical size, gave a growl, one that rumbled menacingly in its chest, he narrowed his eyes and settled into a relaxed stance. The katana rose to settle before him in an instinctively natural movement.

"_Come._" He said, unnervingly calm.

The fox gladly complied.

.-.

Another amount of indeterminable time later – though one considerably sorter than the first – found the fox pined to the ground by six rods of light. Even as the smaller fox made to glare at him, he thrust his sword through the animal's forehead. Even as the katana pierced the fox's brow, its menacing red energy quickly began to darken, fading into a crimson-edged black that matched the zanpakuto's aura. As said being watch on with narrowed eyes, they flashed a glowing gold for a brief moment.

"_Thanks for the meal…_" the soul slayer said as he smirked slightly at the horrified and raging being behind the seal. Ignoring the fox's ranting, he turned to leave. "_I'll be back when I get hungry again, fox._"

An echoing roar was all that followed him as he vanished from the room.

.-.

Back in the 'real world', Naruto turned over again in his sleep and scratched slightly at his whisker marks. "Thanks for the meal…" he mumbled into his pillow.

Ramen was, after all, the Food of the Gods.

.-.

**Another Six Years Later…**

Naruto cursed as he chucked an empty cup of ramen at the scruffy wall of his apartment. He couldn't believe it! He had studied so hard, ignoring everyone and everything that tried to get him down – even begging the old man to help him get into the academy a couple of years early – but he had nothing to show for it.

His teachers at the academy steadily marked him down as the dead-last, no matter how well he did on tests or in sparring. He was just about ready to give up on learning anything at that school. He couldn't get a proper instructor to pay him even the remotest of assistance to save his life anyway, and because of that he had no idea what the hell he was doing wrong in the first place.

Every time he attempted to perform the bunshin technique, _something_ threw it out of whack and, if they formed at all, they ended up dying in absurdly pitiful or explosive ways. He knew that the teachers knew that as well, so that was probably why they made it so passing depended on whether or not he could make a few viable bunshin. Just about everyone in the class besides him could do it too, so it didn't hinder them in the least.

Not that that really mattered all that much anyway. He had failed the graduation exam after that catastrophe. He was still going to go back this next year though, of course. There's no way he'd give up so easily. But still, what was the point in trying as hard as he had been, if no one was even going to acknowledge it?

He sighed harshly, collapsing backwards to land on his bed, head hitting the hard mattress with a slight bounce. If only he was stronger. He wanted so much to be stronger. Stronger than his classmates. Stronger than his teachers. Stronger than that pain in the ass Uchiha a couple classes down from him. Stronger than this entire damn village.

He wanted so badly to be strong enough for them; strong enough for someone to accept him, like they do the old man.

'_I want to be stronger…_' he thought, squeezing his eyes shut. '_Stronger…than anyone…_' The desperate wish settled somewhere deep in his soul as he fell slowly into unconsciousness. And somewhere, deep in the farthest reaches of his mind, a pair of golden eyes opened in answer.

.-.

When Naruto woke he wasn't in his bed, where he had fallen asleep. He wasn't even lying down. He was standing on top of the Hokage Monument, on top of the Fourth's head. It was his favorite place in the village, he'd admit that, but confusion was just about all he felt as he glanced around. The light drizzle of rain and the fog that gathered at his feet didn't really help much.

"Hello?" he called out uneasily, wondering how he had gotten there. He also had the uncanny feeling that something was watching him, ad he didn't like it at all. He blinked a few times and pinched himself – just to make sure he wasn't dreaming, and damn did it hurt – but nothing came of it.

Temporarily ceasing his search, he turned his attention back to the front of the monument and was immensely surprised to see someone there. He hadn't even noticed him arriving… The man's long dark hair was plastered to his body, much in the same way his own blond hair insisted on sticking to his forehead in this weather, and his shoulders were slightly hunched against the water. His appearance made the boy feel a strange combination of curiosity and awe, and he had the feeling that the guy was strong. Like, really, really strong. Like stronger-than-the-old-man strong. And even though he was old, he had to admit that the old monkey _was_ pretty strong.

He was soon broken out of his thoughts by the man's voice, and after hearing his voice, he suddenly had doubts about whether the being before him was a man at all. "_Come, Naruto_." He said softly. "_Let's get out of this rain._"

The boy nodded warily and followed the dark man away from the monument.

.-.

As the man led the way into a very familiar tower, he looked around in bewilderment. No matter the time of day, the tower was usually very busy, and during the night there was a constant patrol of guards. Seeing absolutely no one around a place he had come to associate with crowds of people made him feel more than a bit off balance.

"Where am I?" he asked the elder male as said man pushed opened the doors of the Hokage's office and sat down at a table off to the side. He motioned for the boy to sit as well and Naruto slowly followed the direction. "And who – no, _what_ are you?" he demanded, attempting to hide his nervousness as he shifted his weight in the chair.

The man closed his eyes for a moment before opening them to look steadily at the curious and wary boy. "_This is your soulscape._" He told the child. "_It's the place where your mind and soul meet in harmony to commune. Normally it would take hours upon hours of meditation and concentration to reach it, but in order to get you here I used a kind of short cut and pulled you in._"

Naruto frowned, but accepted the explanation for the moment. "And what are you?" he asked again, a bit calmer now that the… being… had answered his first question without any fuss.

"_I am a zanpakuto._" He told the boy.

"A…soul…slayer?" the ten year old repeated.

"_Yes._" He regarded the boy silently for a moment, linking his hands together between his legs as he did so, before continuing. "_A zanpakuto is a weapon of the soul, used by Shinigami to primarily purify spirits and send them on to the next life. Out there, in the 'real world'," _he gestured vaguely to emphasize the term, "_we take on the form of swords, or a similar weapon. I…_" he grimaced slightly, the expression almost unseen through the mask of bandages. "_I suppose you could call me a gift of the Shinigami of this world._"

Naruto was stunned, to say the least, by the information, and it showed. But even through that he had only one question pushing at the forefront of his mind. "I suppose I'll believe that…" the 'for now' went unsaid but was certainly understood, "But why would the Shinigami give me a…a 'gift' in he first place?" he asked. That was what had bugged him the most about the explanation.

The man – the zanpakuto – didn't answer immediately, choosing instead to watch his charge's rapidly changing expressions for a moment, but eventually said. "_There were probably many reasons for it, and some of them I still don't know, but one of them is obvious. And you also deserve to know it._" He then stood and extended a hand to the boy. "_Come, and I will show you._"

.-.

Some time later the child collapsed back into the chair, still in shock from what he had learned. He was the vessel – the Jinchuuriki – the Kyuubi no Kitsune. His father was the Yondaime Hokage – his idol ever since he had heard of his exploits from the old man. His…his zanpakuto had slowly been killing the fox little by little over the years and absorbing it into itself. Which means that eventually he'd be able to control that strength as well. Completely unbelievable, all of it, but it was true. It explained everything.

The glares, the whispers, the reason why no one had ever adopted him even. His treatment at the academy and around the village, even the attention of the Hokage – something he'd noticed was rather unusual but never really understood before.

But the most important of the discoveries wasn't any of this. While down in the sewers of his mind, soul, whatever-scape, the sword – it was still difficult to think of the clearly sentient being before him as a weapon – had brought the subconciously recalled memories he had of the day of his birth to the forefront of his mind.

His mother's words still rang clearly in his mind. I love you, she had said. All of the advice she had rambled out meant so little in comparison to that, though her other words still meant a lot. She had loved him. _Loved_ him. Loved _him_. He chocked on a dry sob he couldn't hold back. He couldn't remember anyone ever saying that to him before, not ever. A tear dripped from one of his eyes, and even as his zanpakuto appeared before him to offer a shoulder, he began to cry in earnest, too much having happened in too short a span of time for him to resist the tears.

Confused emotions swirled restlessly in his chest, and a small hand clenched helplessly on the soul slayer's sleeve. Above his bent head the zanpakuto raised honey eyes to the ceiling of the room as he wrapped a comforting arm around the child's torso. The sword wondered, idly, at his situation. Dead, yet not; a weapon, but with a soul. And here he had his wielder – a ten year old boy with just about the entire world on his shoulders - crying ceaselessly into his chest. But all he could do for now was comfort the kid he supposed. Training, and the battles that would follow could be thought on later.

He tightened his grip slightly around the boy's shoulders.

* * *

~ Author's Note ~

The first real chapter! Was it as epic as I thought it would be? I think so. I'm quite happy with this chapter really, and I quite enjoyed transcribing the original fight from the manga at the beginning. I almost cried when I was typing out Kushina's lines though. Do you think I gave it justice? Also, I tried to insert a little humor here and there around the middle. Did it work? Feel free to tell me what you think about that too. And anything else. (Remember, read and review!)

If everything works out, the second chapter will be out soon as well. Though probably not quite as soon as this one. Wish me luck!

~ Aljan Moonfire ~


	3. Chapter 2: Names and Secrets

_**Aljan Moonfire does not own Naruto or Bleach**_

"Normal Speech."

'Normal Thoughts.'

"**Demonic/Godly/Summon Speech.**" - also used for jutsu, with translations in brackets.

'**Demonic/Godly/Summon Thoughts.**'

"_Otherworldly Speech."_

'_Otherworldly __Thoughts._' - italics will also be used for both temporary and full flashbacks or dreams.

.-. - POV or scene change.

* * *

**Chapter 2 – Names and Secrets**

* * *

**An indeterminate amount of time later…**

The zanpakuto closed his eyes in slight relief as Naruto eventually cried himself to sleep, his presence dispersing from the soul/mind-scape with the onset of unconsciousness. He had always disliked dealing with crying women and children, even f he knew that the release of emotions was necessary.

Relaxing back into the seat he had vacated when he'd first awoken, he turned to look out the broad windows of the office. The sight that met his eyes had a slight smile creeping across his face under the bandages. The constant, depressing drizzle of rain was finally beginning to die down, small rays of sunlight bursting through the clouds.

"_It seems the rain is finally letting up._" He murmured softly. Then he raised his voice slightly, as if speaking to someone, "_So, when do you think he'll be ready to meet you two?_" he asked idly, not even bothering to look away from the view.

"Not for a few more years, I'd think, but he might surprise me," answered a low male voice. "It'll have to be before you absorb the last of the Kyuubi though; the seal will dissolve after that after all."

"_Well, I'd think that'd be obvious._" The sword finally turned his attention to the one he'd been conversing with. "_Your presences won't be necessary after that anymore anyway. Meeting you two at least once though… it'll be good for him – and for you too, I suppose._"

The man leaning back on the Hokage's desk looked like an older clone of Naruto, just missing the whisker marks and in completely different clothing. Upon a closer look, his facial structure was a bit sharper as well. "That was one of the major reasons why we did it after all, and the other reasons are really a bit redundant at this point." The Yondaime said solemnly, "I'm glad he's grown so well though, even without us around. I can tell, when I look at him, that I was right in what I chose to do that night." He smiled slightly at the thought.

The zanpakuto just arched a dark eyebrow at him. "_Don't go getting all sentimental on me now, Namikaze. That boy would have been strong no matter what happened that night, and he'll be even stronger with me around. The training will begin soon, you know. He'll be even stronger than you by the time he's sixteen._"

The man in question just frowned back lightly at the jab but conceded the point, remembering the man he had fought the night he died. "I know. He'll need to be though. He has far too many enemies, even now; to ever survive this as an average person."

The Yondaime then closed his eyes, felling the pull of his seal tugging him back to the depths of his son's mind/soul-scape. The zanpakuto he'd been conversing with didn't so much as blink as the man's form shivered, and dispersed into the surroundings.

"_Yes, he will need to be, won't he?_" He responded to the man that was no longer there before turning his attention back to the ever so slowly clearing rain. A golden glint appeared and then quickly disappeared back into the honey depths of his irises. "_But no matter what happens, it should be very interesting._"

.-.

**Two years later…**

Umino Iruka looked up from his desk to glance over the room. Hopefully, he would never have to attempt to teach the children that were constantly filling the room with noise ever again. After all, today was the day of the graduation exam. Even with a single glance, he could tell who was most likely to pass, as well as who wasn't.

He knew that over a third of the preteens in the room would find their dreams crushed today, and that over half of those that remained would probably end up being sent back to the academy by their temporary jonin-sensei. In fact, he could only really pick out nine that were most likely to pass, and even that wasn't entirely certain.

Seven of those nine were from some of Konoha's most prominent clans, and most of those seven were actually the heirs to said clans. The fact was, if they_ didn't_ pass a lot of the blame was likely to fall on his shoulders. Fortunately, that didn't seem to be too much of a problem.

Aburame Shino, Akimichi Chouji, and Hyuga Hinata were solidly placed in the upper middle level of the class, and excelled at many of the more practical subjects. For those that knew how to look, it was clear that both Hinata and Shino were holding back most of the time, though most likely for different reasons, respectively.

Inuzuka Kiba and Nara Shikamaru on the other hand, were on the other side of the spectrum, placing low on the middle areas of the class' grades. They both seemed to have chosen to spend their academy days fooling around as much as possible with out failing; Kiba mostly acting like an idiot and Shikamaru sleeping.

Up in the top reaches of the class, were another three that, while apparently skilled, he couldn't help but worry over. Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino had both been scoring quite highly in the academic sections, but their physical condition left…much to be desired, to say the least. That wasn't even mentioning their attitudes when came to being a ninja.

And then there was Uchiha Sasuke. He could already tell that that boy would be nothing but trouble for whatever unfortunate jonin secured the Uchiha for their team. The kid had a weird cross of an inferiority and superiority complex hanging over his head and was completely focused on avenging the massacre of his clan to the exclusion of almost anything else. Also, even though he had only caught glimpses of it over the years, he could tell that the poor kid was desperately lonely but almost afraid to let anyone get too close. Considering the circumstances, that was understandable though. Maybe he should talk to whoever his jonin-sensei turns out to be at some point?

But even then, Sasuke wasn't the biggest problem in the class. That spot was reserved one person and one person only. Uzumaki Naruto. He had no idea what to do with the kid! He skipped classes on a regular basis, only showing up enough to acquire the minimum attendance record required of him. He almost never showed up to participate in the physical exercises and barely passed his written assignments. Even then he only filled in the minimum amount of answers needed to pass.

Even as his eyes met the dark blue of said problem student in the back of the class, he couldn't help but wonder, what had changed? After he failed his first graduation exam, it almost felt as if he had given up. But if that was the case, why was the boy still here? From what he could remember though, even his clothing had changed drastically. Before he had failed that first exam, he could remember the boy being almost unnaturally hyperactive and cheerful and, despite many slights towards him on the part of the teachers, he had never let it get him down. He had even worn a bright orange jumpsuit for god's sake!

But now he seemed to be almost the complete opposite of the kid he had once been. He no longer wore any orange at all, that he could see at least, and seemed content with very neutral colors such as gray and black, and sometimes blue too. No jumpsuits though – he seemed perfectly content with normal shinobi styled pants and sandals with long-sleeved fishnet tops under t-shirts and sleeveless hoodies that were consistently zipped half-way up the front.

His dark blond hair was long, especially in the back where it actually reached his shoulder blades, and was tied up in a low ponytail with bangs that hung over his eyes and in front of his ears. He couldn't help but feel that the hair-style was familiar though, he just couldn't place it exactly. Naturally, he also carried the standard shuriken holster and kunai pouch, but he had also taken to carrying a long katana across his back.

And that sword in and of itself just added to the mystery. It looked relatively normal to tell the truth, but anyone with even the dullest senses could tell that it wasn't even remotely ordinary. The fact that the kid refused to allow anyone to even touch it only added to the enigma. In fact, that was the only time Iruka had ever seen Naruto lose his temper over these past two years; when someone tried to touch his sword. It wasn't pretty, to say the least.

He shook his head exasperatedly. There was no point in thinking on this all, again. Even if Naruto failed once more, he would no longer be his sensei, and even if he passed, he'd still be someone else's problem. He turned his attention back to the chattering class as a whole and felt his eyebrow twitch at the noise he had previously been tuning out.

"Would you all please settle down?" he called out.

They ignored him.

"Be quiet!" he shouted.

The same result. He felt his eyebrow twitch again.

Even as he discretely made the seal for the secret sensei technique he sighed at the necessity of it. Then, even as he felt his head enlarge to titanic proportions, he yelled out with frustration, "SILENCE!"

There was immediate silence.

.-.

Naruto couldn't help the slight twitch of amusement that caused the corners of his lips to curl up in a slight smile as Iruka's giant head and commanding tone sent all of his noisy classmates dashing for their seats. He almost snorted with laughter as he noticed Shikamaru, who had been snoring face-down on his desk a moment earlier, bolt straight up in his chair.

He'd met the boy's mother before himself and had to say, when Iruka got like this they sounded frighteningly alike. They even had the same giant head technique. He couldn't help but wonder if they knew each other. Maybe she'd been an Academy sensei at one point? Well, it didn't really matter anyway.

Turning his attention back to the front of the class room, he was surprised to realize that he'd completely missed whatever speech Iruka had given out and that both he and that white-haired teacher he'd never been able to remember the name of were now handing out the written tests.

As they moved up the bleacher-like seats towards him he continued to frown in aggravation at the 'nameless' man. What the hell was his name again? He looked so familiar too…

.-.

Mizuki gulped unobtrusively as he felt nervous sweat begin to gather between his shoulder-blades. That fox brat was staring at him again.

He couldn't have already discovered what he was planning to do could he? No, there was no way. That slacker couldn't have. That was what made him the perfect scapegoat didn't it? He relaxed a bit at that thought.

Yes, there was no way. He returned to scoring the Taijutsu portion of the test as two nameless nobodies that were bound to fail anyway continued to attempt to pound each other into the dirt.

Still, he could contain the slight shiver that ran down his spine. The fox brat was still glaring at him after all.

.-.

Naruto continued to glare frustratedly at the white-haired man's back. What the hell is his name? And why the hell couldn't he remember?

In the back of his mind his zanpakuto was having a hard time containing his laughter at the thoughts that continued to aggravate his wielder. This was the third time today! Even when he was Ichigo he'd never been this bad with names and faces!

Naruto just crossed his arms as he felt his sword's amusement at his situation. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up." He muttered almost inaudibly. He'd forever deny that he was pouting. Even though he was.

Maybe it was Mirimi? No, that was a girl's name.

Minaka? No, not that either. The end sounded wrong.

Argh! How frustrating! He really wanted to know, but it'd too embarrassing to ask someone, considering. What was his name! He knew it had to start with an m…then again; maybe it was an n…? Nanaki, maybe? No, that was too many n's…

.-.

Iruka beamed proudly as Naruto nonchalantly preformed the three academy jutsu flawlessly. So maybe he'd been paying attention after all? Naruto strolled lazily out the door, a yawn stretching his mouth open lazily.

Then again, maybe not.

Beside him, Mizuki grit his teeth in frustration. That kid probably won't believe him now, he's been at the academy long enough to know that there aren't anymore tests in it after they passed the finally exam. If he'd flunked again he may have been able to pull it off, but now?

He grimaced, narrowing his eyes as alternative plans were thought up on the spot and then immediately discarded one after another. It seems he'll have to do it himself. With that conclusion the probability of him actually getting away with it just went down by about twenty percent.

He cursed mentally so as not to alarm his fellow sensei. Damn that fox brat! This was all his fault!

.-.

**At around 11 o'clock that night…**

Naruto grimaced as he felt his sword continue to laugh at him.

'_So, you still can't remember his name, huh._' The zanpakuto continued to tease. '_Or the name of that grocer you've been buying from for the past two years. Or those two banshees in your class._" The boy could almost see the grin in the sword's voice.

'Oh, shut up,' he thought irritatedly to the weapon. 'I'll remember eventually.'

'_I'm sure._' The soul slayer murmured sarcastically and just loudly enough for the newly-minted genin to hear. The boy in question just grit his teeth in annoyance and attempted to ignore the zanpakuto.

Looking around, he noticed that he had somehow wandered to the outskirts of the training fields. 'Hmm…' he wondered idly. 'Where am I? I suppose I spaced out again…' then he caught sight of a nearby sign. 'Training Ground 6, huh?' he was thinking about taking the opportunity to train when a rather loud alert sounded form the Hokage Tower in the distance.

"What the hell..?" He was about to go and see what was happening himself, when another sound caught his attention. It was the familiar sound of clashing weapons and the exertion of battle. The sounds were clearly muffled, saying that the combatants were a fair distance away, but he decided to go investigate anyways.

He might even get the chance to use his newest technique, if it's what he thought it was. After sending one last glance back at the organized chaos of the main part of the village, he was gone, a slight disturbance in the dirt where he'd been standing the only thing left behind to hint that he'd been there at all.

.-.

Iruka panted with exertion as he skidded to a stop, one hand on the ground to brace himself. He barely had time to bring his arms up to guard himself again before a kick slammed into it harshly, sending him flying once again.

"Why are you even trying?" Sneered Mizuki as he assumed an arrogant pose, spinning a large fuma shuriken around his wrist, a large scroll tied to his back. "You know that I've always been stronger than you." He continued.

Iruka slowly rose into a crouch again, and replied. "Because I'm a ninja of Konoha." He said resolutely. "Because there's no way in hell I'll let you do this without a fight." Finally he stood, wincing inwardly at the pain of his injuries and the strange stiffness in his limbs. "Now give back the Forbidden Scroll!" he yelled.

Mizuki just sneered again. "No way in hell." He quickly increased the speed of weapon he was holding and threw it.

As the large shuriken cut through the air towards Iruka in a deadly arc, Iruka's eyes widened in horror. 'I can't move!' he thought frantically.

Mizuki smirked at his opponent as the weapon neared the chunin. "My weapons are soaked in a slow-acting paralytic poison, Iruka. There's no way you can dodge this."

As it turns out, the academy sensei didn't even need to.

Suddenly, Iruka was staring in startled surprise at the back of one of his students, a student that had appeared in front of him without a sound and reached out to plucked the fuma shuriken from the air as if it were nothing. A spiky blond ponytail that reached below the boy's shoulders normally floated down to cross over the pre-teen's shoulder even as Mizuki stared in shock from the other side of the clearing.

"So…" the boy began softly in a low, furious voice, "What do you think you're doing, you bastard." It wasn't really a question. Naruto had watched the entirety of that last exchange from the tree line and was now pondering whether or not to kill the obvious traitor before him. He supposed not being able to remember said traitor's name was a moot point by now.

"Heh," said bastard sneered at the blonde boy, almost happy that he'd appeared. It might make things a bit more difficult, but it wasn't as if the kid would really be able to make all that much of difference; he was only a freshly graduated academy student after all. He'd wanted to pay the brat back for making him change his plans anyway.

"Well, if it isn't the fox-brat." He said as an ugly smirk stretched across his face. "I've always wanted to be the one to take you out." Naruto just looked at him quizzically, wondering what the hell the guy was mumbling about.

Then the former sensei spoke louder, "How about I tell you the truth then, _Naruto-kun_." He began mockingly.

Naruto paused at that, wondering what the man knew. He already knew about most of the secret's the Hokage was pretending didn't exist, but maybe he knew something else? It was doubtful, honestly, especially considering that the man talking was only an academy teacher with relatively low security clearance, but it wouldn't hurt to make sure.

"What truth?" he asked, both curious and skeptical.

Mizuki's twisted grin just widened at the question, while behind the boy Iruka's eyes widened in horror and realization. "N – no!" Iruka yelled in apprehension, "Don't –"

Mizuki ignored the exclamation and continued, "You know about the attack of the Kyuubi twelve years ago, right? How the Fourth killed it?"

"Stop it, Mizuki! You know that's forbidden!" Iruka protested and was promptly ignored.

Naruto just nodded in response. 'So it's that is it?' he thought scornfully, 'Couldn't he have at least come up with something more original? He's probably going to actually call me the fox now…'

"Well, that's a complete lie. There was even a law made to protect it, one that made it so you'd never know." Mizuki's smirk widened as he came to the climax. "The Fourth couldn't kill it, so he sealed it into a human form – into you! You are the demon fox and attacked the village and killed Iruka's parents!

"Mizuki! Stop it!" Iruka shouted again.

The traitor continued on gleefully, regardless of the useless protests, "Everyone in this village has lied to you your whole life! Didn't you ever find it odd how everyone hated you?" He removed a second giant shuriken from the holster on his back began to spin it rapidly, completely ignoring the darkening of the newly minted genin's expression – or if he did he just took it as confirmation that what he was saying was working.

"Mizuki!"

"Iruka's the same! He actually hates you!" and the second shuriken was sent flying straight towards the pre-teen.

Iruka's eyes widened even further as he struggled to move. The shuriken was moving to fast! There was no way the kid could dodge in time! And even if he did it'd sill hit him!

And then the boy threw the shuriken that he still had in hand – the one that both of them had almost forgotten about – and knocked the other away. Even as they gaped in shock at the immediate dismissal of the threat, the boy began to chuckle, and then laugh, head flung backwards in mirth.

"Ha ha ha!" the blonde gasped out, the chuckles finally dying down. Then he turned his attention back to the still stunned traitor. "That's it?" he asked. "That's the big secret? Not only did you get almost all of your facts wrong, bastard, but I've known that for years." They were both even more stunned by this proclamation.

In an office half a village away, the Sandaime also choked in surprise. Naruto knew? He blinked slowly as he tried to absorb that piece of information, hands clenching slightly on his scrying orb. Well, it might explain a lot of the changes in his personality over the past few years, but why hadn't Naruto ever said anything before this?

He quickly returned his attention to the scene playing out in the crystal ball as Naruto continued to speak. "I'm not the fox – never have been, never will be." Then his eyes narrowed menacingly under his bangs, and he reached behind him to take hold of his sheathed sword. "And I think I've wasted enough time on you tonight."

"Wasted enough time?" the white haired man questioned slowly and incredulously. "What the hell are you talking about brat? What could you ever do to compare to me? I'll destroy you in a single move!" He shouted, making to attack.

But the boy was gone, the only remnant of his presence a dispersing puff of dust hovering above the ground and two discarded fuma shuriken. "Really?" came the boy's voice from behind him, "Because for some reason I'd thought this mockery of a decent fight was already over."

Even as he spoke the brief sound of a sword being sheathed echo in the abnormally still air, and blood gushed in arching spurts from each of the traitor's limbs as he collapsed to the ground with a scream. Even as the genin adjusted his sword on his back he turn back to glare down into the shocked eyes of the panting and wounded man. "Don't worry, you won't die. At least not yet. I'm sure Morino-san is just dying to meet you though."

At that thought the former academy-sensei went even paler and immediately passed out. Then Naruto's attention was distracted by the sound of his other academy-sensei collapsing to the ground. Trusting both that the injured man wasn't going anywhere at that the Anbu team he could feel approaching could handle it even if he did, he quickly hurried over to the chunin.

What he saw once he arrived on the other side of the small clearing made him sigh in slight exasperation. "Couldn't he have at least stayed conscious long enough to vouch for me to the Anbu?"

.-.

Sarutobi sighed tiredly as he regarded the boy sitting across from him. This entire night had been just one headache after another.

First had been the theft of the forbidden scroll, obviously. Then the revelation that Naruto had known of at least one of the secrets he had hoped to keep from him for a while longer. Then that mess with the Anbu completely misunderstanding the situation when the found Naruto standing alone beside the two unconscious academy teachers and in possession of the stolen forbidden scroll – the conclusions they made at that were both obvious and expected though, he supposed.

And now he had to deal with the absolute migraine that consisted of explaining to his surrogate grandson just why he'd attempted to keep a secret like him being the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki from him for the first twelve years of his life.

He was way too old for this job.

Sarutobi paused almost imperceptibly for a moment before clearing his throat and beginning to speak. "Naruto, I am aware of what happened in that clearing tonight – what was said, as well as what you did."

"You mean you were using that peeping ball of yours to spy on me?" the boy deadpanned.

"It's not a 'peeping ball'." The man replied in automatic irritation. "But yes, I was using it, though not to spy on you. I was attempting to locate the thief, and when I came upon the confrontation between Iruka and Mizuki I immediately sent out an Anbu team and continued to watch. I wasn't expecting you getting involved at all, honestly."

Naruto nodded at that, his interference probably was rather unexpected. But it wasn't as if he could let Iruka get killed either, and there was no way the Anbu would have gotten there in time.

"But –" Sarutobi cut himself off before he could continue, a guilty feeling welling up in his chest. "If you knew this whole time, why didn't you say anything, Naruto." It was obvious what he was talking about.

Naruto just smiled slightly, the expression somehow both ironic and open. "I was waiting for you to tell me, old man."

The Sandaime's eyes widened at the answer before his expression softened. He opened his mouth, as if to reply, but hesitated. "I'm sorry Naruto." He finally replied. "I should have told you earlier, without it having to come to this, but… I wanted you to have a childhood."

Naruto began to raise a skeptical brow at that, but before he could interject the elder man raised his hand and continued. "Even if it may not have been a very good one, you still had a childhood you wouldn't have if I'd told you earlier. I've seen far too many bright young shinobi through away their innocence like that. The first time I saw you smile as a child I realized that I didn't want to see that happen to you."

Guilt was made apparent in his expression at this point. "I'm sorry that that I didn't succeed entirely, but I'm also sorry that I seem to have betrayed your trust. I hope you can forgive an old man's sentimentality." He finished, the apology in his voice and words sincere.

"It's alright, old man." Naruto replied after a moment of surprised silence. He rubbed the back of his head embarrassedly as he looked away for a moment. Then he returned his gaze to his grandfather-figure and said, "Just don't do again then, I guess." with a slightly uncomfortable smile.

Sarutobi smiled back but then frowned slightly, thin of something else – something important – he'd also been keeping back. "Naruto, about your parents," he began. This time though, Naruto was the one to cut him off.

"Yeah, I kind of already know about them too." He said sheepishly.

Sarutobi just gaped. "Really?" he finally responded after a moment of awkward silence.

"Yeah." Naruto glanced meaning fully at the photos of the previous Hokages that hung on the nearby wall. He then smiled again, once more feeling ill at ease.

"Oh."

* * *

Author's Note

And…that's a wrap. For now at least. Sorry for the lateness of the chapter though.

As for the chapter itself, it mostly followed cannon, as you could probably tell, mostly because the effects of the changes I've made haven't really reached beyond Naruto yet. However, as you can also probably tell, as a result of having someone to talk to that accepts him 24/7 Naruto isn't as desperate for companionship as he was in the original storyline. One of the most obvious consequences of this is that he isn't anywhere near as close to Iruka as he was in canon.

Also, I considered dragging out the Mizuki scene, maybe making the bastard a bit stronger than he was originally or something, but I eventually decided that Mizuki was too weak, and honestly too unimportant in the long run, to drag it out much. He won't be making a comeback by the way, the way he did in that filler arc of the anime. When Naruto attacked him he took out most of the tendons in the guy's arms and legs. Even if they get him to a proper medic in time, I honestly doubt he'll be able to continue as an even remotely competent ninja.

That's also if he even _wants_ to after spending some quality time with Ibiki. Off we go to prison, the wonderful prison of Konoha!

Another thing though, and also the reason I was reluctant to post this chapter. Is the end of that last scene really as awkward as it felt to me? I couldn't find a better way to end though, so I figured I might as well post it. Hope you enjoyed it anyway though.

I think I've rambled on enough for now. Now it's you turn. Review! (I always appreciate the long ones! *hint*hint*)

~ Aljan Moonfire


	4. Chapter 3: Konohamaru

_**Aljan Moonfire does not own Naruto or Bleach**_

"Normal Speech."

'Normal Thoughts.'

"**Demonic/Godly/Summon Speech.**" - also used for jutsu, with translations in brackets.

'**Demonic/Godly/Summon Thoughts.**'

"_Otherworldly Speech."_

'_Otherworldly __Thoughts._' - italics will also be used for both temporary and full flashbacks or dreams.

.-. - POV or scene change.

* * *

**Chapter 3 – Konohamaru**

* * *

_The wind was cold. That was the first thing Naruto noticed. _

_Looking up, the second thing he noticed was that it was the bright full moon that was illuminating the space around him with a soft silver glow. Diamond-bright pinpricks of light also glinted across the dark blanket of the night sky. _

_Blinking slowly in leisurely contemplation he idly wondered, 'Where am I?' _

_On turning his head to survey his immediate surroundings, he found that he was in the middle of a very familiar field covered in long grass that was interspersed with occasional white flowers. _

_But that wasn't what had immediately caught his attention anyway; it was the small boy that stood before him. A very familiar boy at that. 'Ah, it's a dream then.' He thought. Then he stiffened at a slight rustling of the grass behind him. Turning, he frowned at the person he found himself looking at. 'No, more like a memory.'_

_The person he had turned to face was a boy also, though he appeared to be around his current age and had equally long dark hair. He moved to the side slightly so he no longer stood between the two. He remembered this night very well. The boy he had first seen – one that unmistakably wore his own younger face – smiled at the other. The second boy smiled back, though it was a bit strained._

_Neither showed any indication that they ever noticed that the elder Naruto was there at all. It didn't surprise him._

_And the memory played out just as he remembered it happening. _

_As the second boy finally vanished in a swirl of wind he closed his eyes against the sight of his devastated younger self. Even now he couldn't really understand what had caused the other boy's actions that night. As far as he knew, no one did. Still… he knew there _had _to be a reason. A good one._

'_Is it all right if I still miss you?' he wondered to himself as he felt his surroundings blur with the onset of consciousness. 'Itachi-nii…?' _

.-.

Naruto did not wake slowly. When he opened his eyes he was already fully aware. He then sat up and ran a hand through his long hair, now loose from its customary tail. His fingers caught momentarily in the small knots that had formed in his sleep. He glanced out the window quickly and was glad to find that the sun was only just rising. Good. He had plenty of time then.

Fifteen minutes later found the blond boy finishing off a quick breakfast as he strolled out the door. Not even bothering to look around at the empty streets he then quickly jumped to the roof of a nearby building and continued in the direction of the training grounds. On reaching them he then entered the training ground he'd had to pass up the previous night and began his morning exercises.

As he stripped off his sleeveless hoodie and laid it and his sword on a nearby training stump he thought back to the day and night before. It had been quite productive, if he did say so himself. He had passed the graduation exam easily enough, even though he'd been a bit preoccupied through most of it. Then he'd managed to interrupt that fight between Iruka and…um…well…that traitor.

He'd managed to get something useful out of that as well. He'd only been able to take a long enough look to memorize the description and handseals of the first technique on the scroll before the Anbu squad had arrived, but the jutsu looked to be worth all the trouble he'd gone through.

'So,' He thought as he cracked his knuckles and turned away from the stump, 'the Shadow Clone Technique, huh?'

.-.

**Later That Day…**

"So, you ready then, kid?" the rather portly man asked as he adjusted the lens of the camera.

"Just get on with it already." The blond boy answered, glaring at the device with irritation. What was the point in having photos in shinobi profiles anyway? He shifted uncomfortably on the wooden stool.

The photographer arched an eyebrow at the kid's attitude but complied readily enough and said, "Well then, smile!"

Naruto just glared harder, and a flash of light momentarily blinded the irritated subject of the photograph. How annoying.

.-.

Sarutobi stared unflinchingly into the dark blue eyes of the genin before him. The boy returned the look unwaveringly. Deciding to stop this before they ended up locked in what promised to be a very long staring contest, he sighed, somewhat exasperated.

"Is there a reason why you look so angry in this picture, Naruto?" he asked.

The boy huffed in irritation and crossed his arms. "I just don't like having my picture taken." He attempted to defend himself.

The Sandaime took another look at the profile and the angry eyes that glared at him from the photo. He sighed again. "I think that's an understatement." He commented under his breath. Then he raised his eyes once again to look at the pre-teen before him. "Well, other than that though, you're all set. Be at the academy tomorrow at ten for team assignments."

Naruto nodded and rose to his feet. "Okay then old man, I'll see you –" he began, but was interrupted by a childish war cry.

"Fight me, old geezer!" The source of the shout was a small boy who seemed to be around eight years old. An odd sort of hat gathered his hair into an awkward tuft at the top of his head and a ridiculously long scarf fluttered behind him. One of the boy's hands braced itself against the ground as the other awkwardly clutched what seemed to be a recently pilfered shuriken and made to throw it in the direction of the Hokage.

Naruto just blinked in surprise and slight irritation at the sudden interruption. The Hokage sighed again, a puff of smoke wafting up into the air. 'Really, again…?' he thought exasperatedly. 'What is Ebisu_ doing?_'

"Oh no, not again!" came another shout from outside the room, echoing the Hokage's own thoughts.

'Well, that answers that question.' Sarutobi thought dryly.

Even as Ebisu shoved open the door of the room, the small boy tripped over himself and faceplanted in the floor. The two new arrivals immediately froze and made simultaneous exclamations of shock and pain, respectively.

Then the boy raised his head, clutching at it in pain and shouted, "Damn it! Who set that trap?" The question didn't seem to be directed at anyone in particular.

"Are you alright?" Ebisu asked the boy, just as loud. "And there aren't any traps anywhere!" he answered. The boy was clearly ignoring him though.

Naruto looked down at the small boy from where he was standing with a raised eyebrow. 'Who the hell is this kid anyway?' he wondered to himself.

That was when Ebisu noticed the other occupant of the room and immediately fixed a familiar cold glare on the pre-teen. 'The Kyuubi-brat…'

"Hey!" the boy suddenly yelled again, standing and pointing at Naruto, "You're then one who set that trap, aren't you!"

Naruto just glared at the kid half-heartedly as he attempted to check his hearing with a pinky finger. "You tripped over your own two feet, idiot." He told him, bored and not really feeling like sticking around any longer.

"Hey! Don't insult him!" Ebisu took immediate offense, his voice still loud as he gestured at Sarutobi. "He's the Hokage's grandson!"

Naruto blinked slowly, looked back at the kid, and then looked incredulously at said man. The expression on his face said clearly what he was thinking. _You've got to be kidding me…_

The Sandaime nodded back at pre-teen in confirmation with a slightly embarrassed look on his face.

Catching the exchange of expressions, but not exactly the emotions conveyed, Konohamaru ground his teeth in frustration. 'Now that he knows who I am he won't dare do anything. He's just like everyone else –' Konohamaru's thoughts were then interrupted by Naruto's response.

"And you really think I give a damn?" the genin returned to the jonin uncaringly. He then turned his attention back to the Hokage and repeated what he'd been about to say earlier. "I'll see you later, old man."

He then strolled as lazily as ever from the room, arms folded behind his head. He left behind various reactions to his words. Sarutobi just shook his head in exasperation at the boy's mannerisms as Konohamaru looked after him in awe. 'So cool…'

Ebisu on the other hand was furious, and began ranting at full volume. Eventually the man wound down, the rant having somehow turned into a lecture on his own apparently amazing qualities as an elite instructor. When he turned to look at his intended audience however, said boy was long gone, and the Sandaime was just regarding him with an expression of long suffering.

"Damn it! He got away again!" Ebisu spoke the obvious and looked around himself in a rather useless manner.

Sarutobi sighed, again, and replied, "It seems he followed Naruto."

"No way!" the man looked ridiculously horrified and scrambled to race after the two boys.

The Hokage mostly ignored the reaction as he folded his hands before his face. 'Why did he turn out like this?' he wondered to himself, 'That was the twentieth 'surprise' attack today. That he followed Naruto isn't _too_ worrisome…It might end up being entertaining though.'

Quickly checked to make sure there weren't any over achieving Hokage-slav… desk-chunin… around and on finding none pulled out his crystal orb. Then h paused and stared at it for a moment before activating it with a carefully directed pulse of chakra.

'It's not a peeping orb, damn it!'

.-.

Naruto stopped and sighed in exasperation, eyebrow twitching. Turning around, he glared irritatedly at a small section of fence that had the slats positioned horizontally, unlike the rest of it which was vertical. The small sandaled foot and half of an unmistakable scarf that stuck out from under what was clearly a rather badly botched camouflage technique only queued an increase in the eye-brow twitching.

"Would you stop following me, brat?" he called out.

Konohamaru immediately dropped his clumsy disguise and smirked at the older boy. "Heheh, impressive." He said. "To see through my cover… It seems the rumors about you are true."

Naruto just blinked blankly at the boy, unsure of how to respond. 'That has got to have been one of the most pathetic disguises I've ever seen. And what rumor is he talking about? The only ones I know of aren't anywhere near good…'

"I've decided! I'll make you my boss!" the kid then exclaimed.

Naruto blinked again, but in surprise this time. "Huh?"

"And in exchange," the child continued, oblivious to the older boy's confusion, "Please teach me how to defeat Gramps!"

You could almost see the question mark floating above the genin's head at the request. 'How the hell does he expect me to know how to defeat the strongest ninja in the village?'

"Why do you want me to do that?" he finally asked the other boy.

"Just because! You're really strong, right Boss? Please?" he clenched his hands before his chin and almost begged, "Please, Boss?"

Naruto winced at the boy's watery eyes and finally conceded after a few moments of resistance. 'Well, I was bored anyway…' he thought resignedly. Well, better men then he had fallen to the puppy dog eyes anyway, he tried to comfort himself. It didn't work very well.

"Fine. So, what's your name then, kid?"

.-.

A few minutes later found the two boys in the middle of a small park not far from where Naruto had finally gotten fed up with Konohamaru chasing him around.

"Alright, so what do you know so far?" Naruto asked the younger boy.

Konohamaru immediately stood at attention and gave a listing of what skills he had. It was a short one, to say the least. He was only eight after all.

'Well,' Naruto thought, 'I have no intention of teaching him anything after today – I get my genin team assignment tomorrow after all. He already has a fairly basic control of his chakra too… I suppose perfecting his **Henge **would suffice for today, but how to spin that into defeating the old man?'

Then a veritable lightbulb went off in his head and he gently slammed a fist into his palm as he said, "Alright, I'll teach him _that_ then."

"Teach me what?" Konohamaru eagerly repeated.

Naruto then kneeled in front of him and said seriously, placing a hand on the smaller boy's shoulder as he did so, "I'm going you to teach a technique that has been expressly forbidden by the Hokage ever since I first showed it to him. It knocked him out in a single shot."

Konohamaru's eyes began to shine with eagerness as he practically vibrated with excitement. "What is it?"

"It's the ultimate technique; and an immediate K.O. for any straight male in sight." Naruto grinned, a slightly evil shine in his eyes. "I call it, the **Oiroke no Jutsu." **

"Oiroke?" Konohamaru repeated confusedly. 'Sexy..?'

"Yes, the Oiroke no Jutsu. I'll only teach you the most basic form, but hopefully you'll be able to make you own variations eventually." Naruto continued seriously, standing up as he did so. "Are you ready?"

Konohamaru was already bouncing in excitement again. "Yes!"

Naruto only had one thought going through his mind as his rather ominous grin widened, 'Who knew corrupting kids was so much fun?' His zanpakuto choked on a laugh.

.-.

"Now that you understand the basics," said Naruto after he finished explaining the technique (for once the Icha Icha books were actually good for something) "Try it." He ordered.

A puff of smoke surrounded Konohamaru momentarily and then faded to reveal one of the ugliest women Naruto had ever seen. In a bikini. He threw up a little in his throat. "Gah!" he choked out. "No – just, No. Try it again."

Konohamaru tried again. Naruto immediately felt the urge to rip his eyes out.

The older boy then tried to give some advice, "Try to make her more slender! She's supposed to be beautiful!"

Konohamaru tried it yet again.

"No!"

'This is going to take awhile…'

.-.

Ebisu perched on top of one of the taller buildings in the village and raised a hand to shield his eyes as he surveyed his surroundings. It was clear that the instructor was both attempting to look cool and failing miserably. His thoughts only reflected this.

'I am an elite tutor.' The man praised himself proudly, 'I have taught many future Hokage candidates. I will remove any _parasite_ that attempts to infect my student!'

Suddenly he caught sight of something in the distance and smirked before disappearing from the roof with a leap. "There they are…!"

'If you were to learn shinobi skills from me, becoming Hokage will be easy! I'm your number one shortcut to becoming Hokage, young master!'

.-.

Seeing that the smaller boy was getting tired, Naruto quickly told him to take a break and went to get a couple of drinks from a nearby vending machine. As they sat on a log to the side of where they'd been training it suddenly occurred to Naruto that now would probably be a good time to ask about something that'd been bothering him. He supposed he already had once, but perhaps he'd been too indirect…?

"By the way," Naruto began, "Why do you keep attacking your grandpa like that?"

Above him the newly arrived Ebisu gapped at the question. 'Is that brat an idiot? Does he think no one's tried to ask him that before, including me? There's no way –'

His thoughts were then cut off by Konohamaru chucking away the empty can of his drink and beginning to glare at the ground. Then he actually answered, shocking not only the jonin the nearby tree but also himself. "Grandpa was the one who named me Konohamaru; I'm named after the village. It shouldn't be that hard to remember at all, right? But nobody _ever _calls me by my name." he gritted his teeth in renewed anger.

"Whenever someone talks about me or calls out to me, all they ever see is 'the Hokage's grandson.' No one sees me as me, and I'm sick of it…" he almost hissed. "That's why I want the title of Hokage." He finished, calmer.

"Idiot." Naruto said after a moment of tense silence. "Do you really think it's that simple?"

As Konohamaru rounded on the other boy and made to speak Naruto's voice overwhelmed his as he continued. Up in the tree braches, Ebisu couldn't bring himself to move, curious as to how this would play out despite himself. From what he could see, the boy sitting next to his charge was quite different from what rumor mill said of him though.

"The Hokage is the strongest and most skilled shinobi in the entire village. He leads the village through times of peace and strife and is respected by everyone in it. A Hokage must even be willing to put everything he cares about on the line for the village he serves." His thoughts went unerringly towards his father. "A Hokage is sacrifice." For once his zanpakuto was also silent.

He then turned piercing blue eyes towards his temporary student. "Do you really think this village would let a snot-nosed brat like you lead it?" he gave a short laugh at his own words before quickly becoming serious again, "Besides, if you really want that title…"

"What?" Konohamaru asked, curious, having mostly calmed down again.

Naruto grinned wildly, a flash of gold skipping over his eyes, "…You'll have to beat me to it!"

At this statement, one that left Konohamaru gaping at his newest mentor, Ebisu was broken from the slight trance that had fallen over him as the boy spoke. 'I suppose it's appropriate that the Jinchuuriki would give a lecture like that, but it's about time I intervened. Still, I may have to reevaluate my perceptions of that brat. He may not be as bad as I thought…'

He then made himself known, forming the seals for the shunshin and appearing on a steady tree branch in plain sight. "It seems I've found you." He said, looking down at the two boys.

Naruto though, was a bit confused. He had noticed the tutor glaring at him in the Hokage Tower but now there seemed to be some conflict in his gaze. He wondered what had changed – perhaps it was something he'd said earlier? – but he was quickly broken out of his thoughts by the man speaking again.

"Now, young master, let's go home." He told Konohamaru, jumping from his perch. For the time being he chose to ignore the older boy.

"No way!" Konohamaru yelled back, "I'm going to defeat that old geezer and become the Hokage, so don't get in my way!"

Ebisu, having heard this proclamation many times before simply sighed and ignored the small boy as he began to gather his chakra. Spreading his hands before him he began to give a lecture that had gotten all too familiar of over the past few months. "How many times must I tell you, young master? A Hokage must be a master of every aspect of being a shinobi. You must master over a thousand techniques and…huh?"

Ebisu finally registered Konohamaru's cry of, "**Henge!**" (Transform) and looked up to see what pathetic rendition of whoever he was attempting to transform into happened this time. Thus it was no surprise that when he saw a very attractive and completely naked brunette teenager where his student had been he was shocked into a stunned silence, his jaw dropping. A trickle of blood escaped his nostrils.

Buts then Konohamaru's real voice said, "Take this, **Oiroke no Jutsu**!" At the seeming lack of reaction Konohamaru then turned back in another swirl of smoke. "What? It didn't work?"

A vein began to pulse in the man's temple as he exploded in an embarrassed rage, quickly and as discretely as possible wiping away his slight nosebleed as he did so.

"W – Wh – What a perverted technique! I'm a gentleman; such a dirty jutsu would never work on me!" he shouted. 'I take it back, as I thought, that brat is just an immature slacker!' then he continued, reaching out to grab Konohamaru's scarf as he did so, "If you keep hanging around trash like him you'll be infected with his idiocy! Just do as I say! I'm your easiest shortcut to becoming Hokage! Now come on!"

Konohamaru quickly drew away from the tutor and even though he didn't understand some of what the man had said still understood that he was insulting his new boss. "No way! I'm staying and learning from the boss!"

Naruto, who had previously been watching the exchange with lazy amusement, felt his eyebrow twitch at the insult to both him and his first original technique. 'Oh, really? It would never work on you? We'll see about that! I wonder…'

Seeing what he had planned, his zanpakuto practically convulsed in suppressed laughter.

"**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!**" (Shadow Clone Technique)

At the shout and – on Ebisu's part at least – the large surge of chakra the other two looked up from the argument to stare in shock and – on Konohamaru's part this time – awe that the nearly twenty clones of the pre-teen that had just appeared in nearly simultaneous puffs of smoke.

'What the hell?' thought Ebisu, 'How much chakra does he have? Even I can barely make seven Shadow Clones without suffering chakra exhaustion!'

Konohamaru's thoughts were much simpler and he immediately chose to voice them with wide amazed eyes, "Wow! So cool! That's amazing!"

On hearing this Ebisu snapped out of his shock and began to sneer at the genin. 'Humph, even if there are twenty of them they're still fresh genin. I suppose this is how he defeated that traitor Mizuki last night though.' Then he too chose to voice his thoughts, "Heh, how foolish. I'm an Elite Tutor. I'm nothing like that weakling Mizuki." He sneered.

The now twenty Narutos ignored him and formed a few handseals, ending with the ram sign. "**Henge!**" they all called out in unison.

"Huh?"

"EBISU-SAMA!"

"Gah!" SPLURT!

Looking on through his scrying orb, the Hokage buried his face in his hand in exasperation.

Konohamaru gaped in shock.

Naruto smirked, dispelling both his clones and the transformation technique, and said, "**Harem no Jutsu,** success."

Ebisu just groaned helplessly from were he lay nearly unconscious on the other side of the clearing. Before he finally passed out one last thought ran through his mind, 'I really do hate that fox brat after all…'

.-.

Back in his office, Sarutobi groaned again, suppressing his own nosebleed. "**Harem no Jutsu**, huh?" he muttered, "So he combined that stupid (if effective) 'Sexy' technique of his with the Kage Bunshin. I suppose he took the time to learn it from the Forbidden Scroll. I'll have to make sure he knows the dangers of that technique though."

Directing the orb's view momentarily towards Ebisu he was grateful to see that the man was mostly fine, if unconscious and probably weakened from blood loss. 'Honestly though, I'd probably fall for it too…'

.-.

Back at the park, Konohamaru continued to gush at the genius of the technique. "That was so awesome, Boss! You defeated my tutor!" but then got a little depressed as he continued, "I want a name people will acknowledge me by as well though, and yet…"

'As well? It's not like I have much of name yet myself…' Shaking his head, Naruto gently slapped the younger boy on the back of the head, quickly getting said kid's attention as he crouched slightly before him. "Like I said earlier, it's not that simple. It's the Hokage title we're talking about! Even getting a single person to acknowledge you as worthy for it is really hard, let alone an entire village! So, you better prepare yourself!"

"Prepare myself?" asked Konohamaru.

"Yeah. If you want to be an incredible Hokage that everyone will acknowledge, there's not going to be any shortcuts!"

At that very moment a swift breeze swept through the clearing, sending a multitude of leaves swirling into the air around them. Konohamaru couldn't help but think how cool his newest idol looked. Then what Naruto had said earlier, before Ebisu had interrupted suddenly registered

– "…_If you really want that title, you'll have to beat me to it!"_ -

Konohamaru's eyes widened, and then he frowned and huffed, half turning away from the older boy. "Bah! Stop lecturing me like you know everything… I'm not letting you be my boss anymore!" then he turned around and grinned, a challenge plainly seen in the smile, "From today on, we're rivals!"

Naruto half-smiled back but then rethought it and said, "Sorry, but staring tomorrow I'm taking my first step as a shinobi," and tapped the hitai-ate that was tied loosely around his neck and that Konohamaru had somehow missed until now.

'It's not like I could stand being the rival of an eight year old anyway. I'd feel too pathetic…' he thought

Thankfully, the other boy was unaware of his thoughts, and Naruto continued speaking. "But one day…" The smaller boy looked up at that, "…one day I'll be glad to fight you for the Hokage title! In fact, I'll be looking forward to it…Konohamaru."

.-.

**The Next Day…**

Naruto smiled slightly as leaned forward on the desk to look out one of the windows. Yesterday had been rather strange; now that he thought back on it at least, but it had been rather entertaining too. It had been a while since he'd gotten to know someone like that. Corrupting the kid had been fun too – he'd even asked for it.

Konohamaru was a good kid, despite his almost constant excessive volume level. Also, despite saying that he was no longer his boss, that kid kept on calling him that, though it also seemed to have become rather interchangeable with 'Naruto-nii' or 'Nii-chan'.

It was interesting, having someone look up to him like that. He wondered, had he acted like that when he'd first met– no, better cut that thought off before it goes anywhere it doesn't need to. There was no point in thinking on the past.

But he was also a shinobi now. He reached up slightly to caress his new forehead protector, tied in what was quickly becoming its customary position around his neck. One step closer to his goal, becoming Hokage, and surpassing his father and all the others who came before him.

He could feel the wordless support of his Zanpakuto in the back of his mind and was silently grateful for it. He didn't know how he would have turned out if he didn't have his support; he may have even turned out like, well, Chicken-butt.

Naruto shuddered at the thought of being like that angsty brooder. Speaking of which… Naruto turned his head to the side to regard the other boy and frowned. He wondered if he made that little raincloud hover his head on purpose…

Then he winced as he heard what could have been approaching thunder. It wasn't though – it was worse. Just about every male in the room (and some of the females too) braced themselves for the noise.

"I WIN!"

"NO YOU DIDN'T! MY FOOT WAS THROUGH THE DOOR FIRST, INO-PIG!"

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, FOREHEAD-_CHAN_! CLEARLY, MY FOOT MY WAS THERE BEFORE YOURS! I'LL BE TAKING THE SEAT BESIDE SASUKE-KUN!"

"NO WAY!_ I'M_ SITTING WITH SASUKE-KUN!"

Naruto made a valiant effort at ignoring the two banshees, inwardly promising to invest in a good set of earplugs if he ended up with either one on his team. It would prove to be a good decision on his part.

.-.

Iruka opened the door of the classroom to find a very strange sight, even for this class. Well, more like especially for this class.

"Sakura-chan, please stop hitting Sasuke! What ever he did to you it couldn't have been that bad!"

"Eh!" said girl finally noticed just who it was she was striking, "Oh my God! Sasuke-kun! Are you alright! I'm so sorry!"

Iruka almost sighed with relief as things went back to normal and Sakura bean to gush over he long-time crush once more. But how did they end up in that situation in the first place..? His eyes eventually landed on a very amused looking Naruto sitting only a couple of seats away from the commotion and he couldn't help but wonder…

But back to what he was originally doing. "Alright! Now, if everyone's here, we will begin!" Iruka then called out. Immediate anticipatory silence fell as all eyes turned to him.

"My congratulations to all of you who have managed to make it this far. However, the road ahead of you will only get harder from this point on. You are now genin, the lowest of the low, but as such adults. I'm very proud of you all for making it this far and I wish you all luck on the journey ahead of you. If you remember nothing else, remember this; you now represent our village, the oldest and strongest of all shinobi villages. Take pride in that."

At this many of the more exuberant began to cheer, and even some of the most stoic smiled slightly. Well, except for Sasuke of course, and you could never really tell with Shino anyway.

"Now then, as per tradition you have been divided into teams of three along with a jonin instructor. Team 1…" He began to list the names of the teams and their members. Then he got to Team 7. "Team 7, will consist of Uchiha Sasuke," at this name quite a few of the girls in the class, including the two previously mentioned banshees, leaned forward in anticipation, sure that they would be paired with their _true love_.

Unfortunately, it seemed that only one would get that 'honor'. "Haruno Sakura," Iruka continued, but was then, unsurprisingly, cut off.

"YAHOO! TRUE LOVE WINS!" Then Sakura turned and stuck a tongue out at her rival, "TAKE THAT, INO-PIG!"

"AND!" Iruka cut in raising his voice temporarily to banshee level volume. Then, seeing that he had the fan-girl's attention once again, continued. "Uzumaki Naruto. Your jonin instructor will be Hatake Kakashi."

Naruto and Sakura let out simultaneous groans, and Naruto slammed his head to his desk in despair. 'Kill me now…'

'_Well, it can't that bad…?'_ the zanpakuto's feeble attempt at reassurance did nothing to comfort the boy.

'You know as well as I do that we're doomed 'till I make chunin. What the hell did I do to deserve this old man?' the last part was obviously directed at the Hokage.

'_At least you'd already planned on getting some earplugs…'_

'Not. Helping.' Naruto deadpanned.

Iruka, meanwhile, had continued with the team assignments. "Team 8: Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuga Hinata, and Aburame Shino. Your sensei will be Yuuhi Kurenai." Much like the first six teams, this team assignment was taken fairly neutrally. The next team…well, not so much.

"Team 9 is still currently in circulation." Iruka said, "And Team 10: Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji, and Yamanaka Ino; your jonin sensei will be Sarutobi Asuma."

"WHAT? WHY AM I STUCK WITH THE LAZYASS AND FATASS WHILE FOREHEAD GETS TO BE WITH SASUKE-KUN? THAT'S SO NOT FAIR!" Ino immediately began screeching.

"If you're really that upset, take it up with Hokage-sama, he has the final say in all team assignments." Iruka told her. "Now, you can take a short break. Your senseis will be here in half an hour."

.-.

**Two Hours Later…**

Sasuke was, as per usual, brooding. But it was about something a bit different than usual for a change. He sat at the far side of the room – as far as he could get from his two other 'teammates'. It wasn't like he needed a team anyway; they'd just get in his way. Well, actually, now that he thought on it they might have some uses.

When his two…fan-girls (cue an almost imperceptible shudder)…had barged into the room and begun to fight, the pink haired one (Sakura, he thought her name was. Maybe.) had eventually won. She had then marched up to the desk he and the Dobe had been sitting at and demanded that Naruto move so that she could sit next to him.

He had moved all right, but not until he'd finished completely pissing her off and then kawarimied with Sasuke himself when she made to actually punch him. This proved two things to the brooding brunette. First; Sakura can hit very hard when she actually wants to. He rubbed at a large, and still growing, bruise on his arm discreetly. If only she'd use that strength a little more productively.

Second; Naruto may actually be quite a bit more skilled then he'd originally thought. It's one thing to switch places with someone when they know about it in advance and actually help you along with their own chakra. It's an entirely different thing to do the same to someone completely unaware or just unwilling. The innate chakra resistance in anyone with an even remotely developed chakra system will usually prevent it.

He turned to glance at his new…teammates…out the corner of his eye and found the object of his thoughts currently snoozing away in a seat a few desks over. The fangirl was also ranting on about the lateness of their sensei, but he was doing his best to ignore her right now.

He couldn't help but wonder though, what else could the other boy do? Even if he's not as strong as he himself, having a sort of rival might make him more powerful than he'd be otherwise. He was getting a bit ahead of himself though. For the moment he should be more concerned with their extremely tardy sensei. No matter what excuse he has, being an hour and a half late is simply unacceptable.

Sasuke scowled even harder over his folded hands at the classroom door.

* * *

**Omake! What Kakashi was doing...**

Hatake Kakashi was in a fairly good mood.

He'd slept in, as per usual, and then woken at 10 o'clock on the dot. After leisurely getting ready for the day and grabbing his ever present Icha Icha off a shelf full of different volumes of it he'd paused to glance between the date on the calendar and his clock, trying to remember the significance of the two combined. Eventually giving up, he'd strolled out the door of his small apartment and into the village.

An hour later found him finishing up with his daily visit to the memorial stone and noticing that he was a bit hungry. He stopped briefly at a small shop near the Academy to grab some dango for a snack.

Then he frowned staring at the tall building that was just barely in sight. Jus as he finished off the last of his snack he finally remembered. 'Oh, right. I was supposed to test a new genin team wasn't I?' he thought lazily.

Glancing at the time he thought, 'Well, I'm already late any way. I'll go pick up a proper lunch before I go meet them then, I guess. Ramen sounds good.'

.-.

Unfortunately, the future Team 7 was left hanging for another hour as Kakashi ate and flirted with the cute waitress at Ichiraku's.

* * *

**Author's Note**

Sorry for the delay, got a bit distracted with things and hit a small case of writer's block midway through. Hope you enjoyed the chapter though, even if it's a bit fillerish. Hopefully the next chapter will be out soon. No promises though. Also, thanks for all of the wonderful reviews. There were over thirty for the last chapter alone. It seems you people really like this story so I'll try for another chapter soon.

R&R then…

~ Aljan Moonfire


	5. Chapter 4: The Bell Test

_****_**Aljan Moonfire does not own Naruto or Bleach.**

* * *

_**Chapter 4: The Bell Test**_

* * *

"_So how will you be doing this, Naruto?_" his Zanpakuto asked curiously, leaning on the ledge of the giant window of the Hokage office. When the boy didn't immediately answer, he turned away from the partly cloudy sky of the mindscape to look at him.

The boy was sitting cross-legged in the comfortable chair behind the Hokage's desk. He had pulled the chair close to the desk and leaned one arm on it, his head resting on his fist as he turned slightly to look at his Zanpakuto.

"I'm not quite sure yet…" the blond half-hummed thoughtfully.

As his wielder pondered his decision, the blade wondered slightly, as he always did, at not making such decisions himself. The part of him that still clung to Ichigo's independent mindset protested at the lack of personal action. Of course, the part of him that was all hollow protested at anything and everything, so he did his best to ignore it – all his hollow side wanted to do was fight, and play with opponents like a cat does a mouse.

The part of him that was most prominent at the moment though, was the mentality of what had once been Zangetsu. Zangetsu had been a Zanpakuto for a very long time. He wouldn't have seen anything odd in not being the one to make decisions – in fact he may have even disliked being the one to do so. As Ichigo's Zanpakuto he had acted as more of a guide than anything else – and even then he'd taken a very hands-off approach until that final battle with Aizen.

It was in a Zanpakuto's nature to see themselves as a weapon, or rather, something to be wielded. As a result most of them are very passive aggressive, and really only release any particularly violent emotions they feel in battle. Of course, they all had their own personalities, but their reactions were more a reflection of what their user's might be in a similar situation than anything else – after all, they were just parts of the same soul.\.

But the relationship between Naruto and his soul slayer was something rather different from that conventional relationship. It had taken quite some time before the zanpakuto had truly come to understand what the Shinigami had meant when they first met over a decade ago, and what it meant for his own personality.

When Ichigo's soul had entirely and profoundly altered itself in order to handle the influx of power from the Final Getsuga, it had transcended itself, taking all of the parts of Ichigo's soul and seamlessly merging them into an entirely singular being. When it really came down to it, most of his current persona had been formed through a series of strange internal compromises between the three sides of his former personality.

What the hollow side had hated, Ichigo loved, and Zangetsu was neutral on, the new Zanpakuto was also neutral on. What two sides of him had hated, and one side of him had been neutral on, he rather disliked. What one side of him had loved, and the other two sides of him had been mostly apathetic of, he loved with nearly an equal fervor.

To give an example, Ichigo had loved all of his friends and family in a nearly desperate fashion. He would – and did – give everything he was or could have been to protect them. However, his hollow side had hated them almost as much. More often than not he'd viewed Ichigo's tight attachment to them as a weakness. Had they ever betrayed Ichigo, or died themselves, it was likely the only thing that really could have broken him. Zangetsu had also acknowledged this danger, but it was usually when Ichigo was happy and surrounded by his friends that the rain of his inner world had ceased, or lightened, at least a bit. As a result his opinion hovered around a slightly positive neutral.

Ichigo and his hollow would have torn apart the new soul with their feelings on the matter had they not been able to find a compromise. The developing personality had found its solution in Ichigo's sisters. They were young enough, and weak enough, to not be a physical threat to him, and precious enough to Ichigo that he could unreservedly project his need to protect through just them.

Unfortunately, this meant that everyone else Ichigo had known and come to befriend really weren't missed at all, including Rukia and his own father. It would be like missing a stranger that had lived next door for a week before moving on. He knew their names and maybe a few things about them if he were especially friendly, and that's it; there was zero emotional attachment.

But what all this _really_ meant was that even though the zanpakuto had all of Ichigo, Zangetsu, and the hollow's memories, and even many of their instinctive urges and skills, he wasn't any of them anymore.

He had become someone – something - else entirely.

The one most immediately relevant result of this – thought not necessarily the most important, by any means - was that while he could easily act as a zanpakuto to one with sufficient spiritual pressure and no soul blade of their own, he was far from being a part of said person's soul. So, instinctive communication was out of the question. If he wanted to know something about his wielder's actions, he had to ask.

It could be very annoying to one used to an instinctive symmetry in such things though. Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he reminded himself that he had to be patient. He was immortal now – just as, perhaps even more then, the Kyuubi had once been – and he was only stuck here until Naruto died; then he'd be free.

The Shinigami King had promised.

And if there was one thing he had completely retained from Ichigo's hollow, it was an unquenchable desire to be free of anything that might hold him back. But for now he had mostly resigned himself to the situation, and was generally content to complete his task and serve as the blond boy's zanpakuto.

Turning his attention back to his young wielder, the zanpakuto saw him open his mouth to speak, "I suppose," said Naruto, "it will mostly depend on my teammates and sensei. Hmm…but, then again… No; never mind." He seemed to be thinking out loud now, "I'll have to be sure to keep quite a bit back from the banshee; I don't really trust her at all. Sasuke will likely be okay once some of that arrogance is pounded out of his skull though. As for Hatake… Well, he was Dad's student, so I'll judge on that end once I meet him." On finishing he glanced at his sword/mentor/friend for approval and got the crinkle around the eyes that indicated a slight smile and a supporting nod in response.

Nodding to himself to confirm his own resolve on the course of action, Naruto sat back and pushed away from the desk. Once standing he tilted his face upwards and spread his hands, and tensed slightly.

And then he vanished with a slight shimmer, thinking, 'Here goes nothing…'

Hatake Kakashi had arrived.

.-.

To one Haruno Sakura, the arrival of Team 7's jounin sensei was nowhere near as anticipated – unless, of course, one counted her intense desire to pound him into the ground for wasting her time. She had much more important things to be doing today! She could gossiping about Sasuke with the OUSFC (The Official Uchiha Sasuke Fan Club™), or tending to her Sasuke Shrine, or, or, well, something _important_ like that.

- **Shannaro!** - Inner Sakura shouted, in complete agreement for once. – **When he gets here I'll kill 'im!** – she declared, perfectly serious.

Sakura carefully ignored the voice in her head, (only slightly thankful that it didn't have any company up there) as always, and turned her attention from glaring at the closed door to sighing at Sasuke's coolness. The only good thing about being stuck here for hours on end was that she was stuck here with him.

She only reluctantly turned her attention away from him once more as the door slowly slid open. The man who slouched through was tall – maybe around six feet – though that could have just been the hair, which was silver and stuck straight up in the air for what had to be a least half a foot. He had his hitai-ate tilted to cover his left eye and his entire lower face was covered by a fabric face mask, leaving only a single half-lidded grey eye to glance over the classroom. Other than that he seemed to be dressed much like any other jounin.

He had a lazy, apathetic look in that one visible eye that seemed to take her measure in a single glance and then nearly dismiss her out of hand.

Inner Sakura scowled, but for once didn't say (scream) anything.

.-.

Hatake Kakashi on the other hand, was entirely indifferent to what minor annoyance the not-yet-genin might hold against him. He wasn't late after all; he'd just gotten a bit side-tracked. And if they asked -

"You're late." That it was the Uchiha who'd said something, rather than the apparent fangirl screeching it – and they wonder why he'd failed every team he'd ever been given? – was a bit of a surprise though…

- he had an excellent excuse. "Sorry," he wasn't sorry at all actually, but they didn't need to know that. "I got lost on the road of life – surprisingly enough, there weren't any signposts."

They all just stared at him incredulously. It was almost amusing. In fact, it likely would have been, were he not longing to be almost anywhere but where he actually was.

Seeing that the pink-haired one seemed about to explode but was trying to hold her tongue, he decided to push her a bit more, just to see if she'd snap. He might as well get some entertainment out of them, even if he could already see himself failing them. He took a careful second to brace himself for the sight of the mini-Minato-sensei in the corner – why the hell had he grown out his bangs like that? It made practically their only differences his longer hair and the whisker marks… – before taking a long, apathetic look at all of them, and sighing exaggeratedly.

"And my first impression of you all… well, to be blunt, I don't like you already."

Mostly because there were more_ important_ things he could be doing, like re-repotting Mr. Uki (the one tiny plant in his apartment), or feeding his dogs. He would have been horrified to know how much his thoughts resembled those of the pink-haired-one only moments before he'd opened the door – though with a thankfully distinct lack of anything Sasuke-related.

As Sakura finally opened her mouth to screech, he continued over whatever she was about to yell, "So, meet me on the roof in ten minutes." 'That should give me enough time to read the rest of chapter ten again…' the quiet, perverted giggle that escaped his mask was thankfully drowned out by the erupting smoke of a generic shunshin.

.-.

Naruto was amused.

Unlike his teammates, he could clearly see that Kakashi was _trying_ to infuriate them. (Actually, it wasn't _them_ in particular; Naruto just had yet to discover that this was how Kakashi treated everyone who wasn't a direct superior.) The seemingly purposeful lateness, the insults, the indifference to their opinions… As far as he was concerned, it was hilarious, especially his teammate's reactions. He might have to try it himself sometime. It made for an awesome prank…

They had made it to the roof within a few minutes, rather than the ten he had given them, to find their new sensei perched on the railing of the roof. Naruto had quickly plopped down on the stairs in front of him with only a split second of hesitation, and the banshee – he was pretty sure her name was Sakura now – and Sasuke – who he had decided to call simply the gloomy bastard during the long wait for their sensei - had followed his example after a few meaningless minutes of waiting for Kakashi to acknowledge them.

Said man, quite obviously, didn't. He seemed perfectly content to ignore them and read his little orange book. Though Naruto did have to wonder, was the man trying to make Sakura quite literally explode by reading porn in front of her? With how red her face was getting he half expected her to at any moment – and that's not even mentioning how horribly the flushed color clashed with her hair.

Soon enough though, the man finally snapped his book closed and carefully placed it in an inside pocket of his jounin vest. "Well," He began, "Let's start off with introductions. You know, likes, dislikes, dreams, hobbies…stuff like that." He shrugged carelessly.

Sakura, having mostly calmed down since Kakashi had put the porn away, fidgeted nervously before realizing that neither of her teammates were going to say anything in response. Still not wanting to go first though, she looked up at the jounin and said, weirdly shy, "Well, we know the least about you…so, how about you go first, sensei?"

"Me?" he replied almost sarcastically. He sighed before saying, in an almost complete monotone, "Well, my name's Hatake Kakashi. I have absolutely no desire to tell you anything about my likes and dislikes. Dreams… Hmm… Well, I do have a lot of hobbies."

Naruto hid a smile as Sakura's eyebrow twitched with annoyance and the gloomy bastard failed to hide a similar reaction. He could almost hear them thinking it; 'So he told us… absolutely nothing..?'

"Now," Kakashi said, breaking into their thoughts, "It's your turn. Let's start with you, pinky."

Sakura's eyebrow twitched again angrily - 'Pinky..?' – but she shook it off quickly enough as her thoughts turned to her answers. She flushed softly and let her eyes trail over to the stoic boy beside her. "My name is Haruno Sakura." She introduced herself softly. "The thing I like…well, the person I like is – " She glanced at Sasuke again and muffled a squeal of excitement. "And, umm, my dream for the future…well," she actually did squeal this time. Sasuke flinched reflexively at the sound and, noticing it, Naruto muffled another laugh.

Giving a light cough in an effort to regain her composure, she soon continued, "What I dislike… Ino-bunta," she scowled here at the thought of her supposed rival, "and Naruto." She glared at the other boy on her team, remembering what had happened earlier that morning.

Eventually she turned her mind from it though, and continued. "And my hobbies…" she looked at Sasuke again, and giggled rather creepily. The rest of them filled in the blank with at least one certainty. 'Her hobby is stalking me/the Uchiha/the gloomy bastard.' Said boy shuddered uneasily.

Kakashi rolled his eyes and gave a light cough to bring their attention back to him. "Next is you," he pointed at Sasuke, "the brooding one."

The dark-haired boy scowled further at the description, but didn't respond to it. Looking over his folded hands at his new instructor he eventually replied in a stoic monotone, "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are lots of things I dislike, and I don't really like much of anything. And...I won't call it dream, but I have an ambition; the resurrection of my clan and to kill a certain man."

They all had a different reaction to this announcement.

'So cool…' Sakura had hearts fluttering around her head. All she'd heard was the part about the resurrection of his clan, and she knew she could most certainly help him out with that. Cue creepy fangirl giggle.

'As I thought…' Kakashi frowned seriously. That might be a problem… _If_ he passes them, which was seeming more and more unlikely by the minute.

Naruto on the other hand, had lost all amusement at the bastard's announcement. 'He must mean…'

'_Yeah, I'd say he's talking about his brother.'_ His Zanpakuto murmured.

Naruto frowned thoughtfully.

"Ok." Kakashi clapped his hands together, bringing their gazes back to him. "And lastly, blondie – it's your turn."

Naruto sighed and lifted his hand to adjust the hitai-ate tied around his neck, thinking on what to say. "…My name's Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen, and my sword. I dislike the three minutes it takes for instant ramen to boil and bigoted, stick-up-the-ass bastards."

'Aka, most of this damn village – though I'll be changing that eventually,' he carefully did not say.

"My dream is to become the greatest Hokage this village has ever seen, and surpass all the ones that came before me." He smirked slightly at the surprise on the faces of his new teammates and thought, 'Especially you, Dad.'

He, quite honestly, didn't really _do_ much in his free time besides train, but… "My hobbies…sleeping, I'd say." He shrugged and added, "And training."

Finally managing to look straight on at the boy, Kakashi almost wished he hadn't. The boy was almost an exact clone of his father, from the tips of his blond hair to soles of his feet. But the real reason for the sentiment was that once he did, he realized he'd never be able to look away again, not really. He'd never be able to push this boy off as someone else's responsibility again.

He'd been too young, he had other responsibilities, he didn't want to look at a face that was practically the spit of his old sensei… His excuses had been endless, and the inference of certain members of the Council had made the boy even easier to push from his thoughts, but in that moment even he couldn't bring himself to believe them in the slightest. He refused to allow himself to acknowledge why that was right now, in front of the little genin no less, but it was there all the same.

And Kakashi made a resolution, right then, if only to himself. Even if he did end up failing this team, he'd find a way to teach Naruto something somehow. He owed his sensei at least that much, and seeing the shadows in the boy's eyes – the kind of shadows he'd never wanted to see in the eyes of his sensei's child – he knew he already had a lot to make up for.

He'd thought, rather abstractedly, about paying some extra attention to Sasuke, being as he was the last of Obito's relatives, but as much as he hated to admit it, he owed much more to his sensei than to the boy who'd been on his team for less than a year before he'd died. Naturally, he did owe Obito – he'd been the catalyst; the one that had made him realize that the people around him, the people he was supposed to be protecting, were just as – if not more – important than any mission could be. But…Namikaze Minato had been a father, a brother, a sensei and everything in between to him since – and even before - his father had…had died.

Even though Obito had been the catalyst, his jounin-sensei had been everything else. And he'd only been fifteen years old when the Kyuubi had attacked and taken his sensei away from him as well.

He owed a debt, one he had always subconsciously acknowledged, one that he could never really pay back; one that he'd never even had the chance to try to. He'd do as much as he could for the young shinobi before him though, in order to repay as much as he was capable of. Blinking slowly at the blond boy, he smiled slightly, though the emotion was completely hidden by the mask from those around him.

'He's certainly grown in an interesting way…' Kakashi thought nostalgically. 'Hokage…huh?'

Jerking his head slightly to inconspicuously shake off his thoughts, the jounin brought his hands together in a swift clap that was only slightly muffled by his finger-less gloves. "Since I suppose that finishes up introductions, tomorrow we'll start our shinobi duties," he began.

"What kind of duties." It didn't sound even remotely like the question it should have been, but Sasuke didn't withdraw it when Kakashi glanced at him, faintly annoyed by the interruption.

"First, we're going to do something together; just the four of us…" he continued, as if the Uchiha hadn't said anything at all. A hint of malignant humor tinted his dark grey eye, and Naruto frowned, finally becoming slightly annoyed by the man's efforts to draw things out. The boy refused to give him the satisfaction of actually showing it though.

Sakura had nowhere near his amount of patience though, and she finally blurted out, "What?!"

"Survival training."

Once again it was Sakura who responded, "Survival training?" she asked, annoyance and bewilderment coating her voice and expression. "Why is our first task training? We did enough of that at the academy."

The malicious laughter in his gaze still hadn't disappeared, and he replied, "This won't be normal training. I will be your opponent." He chuckled slightly, as if unable to hold it back anymore.

"What's so funny sensei?" Sakura asked, unnerved, though she never admit it, especially with Sasuke sitting right next to her.

Kakashi's eye curved up in what might have been a smile before saying, "Well…it's just that when I tell you this you'll seriously freak out."

"Freak out?" Sasuke's eyebrow twitched at this; as if he'd ever 'freak out'.

Seeing that they were unconvinced, Kakashi leaned forward slightly, leaking a slight amount of killing intent into the air; just enough to make the atmosphere more menacing. "Of the 27 graduates," he finally said, "only nine will be chosen to become genin. The rest will be sent back to the academy." He gestured at them pointedly and arched his only visible brow. "The 'training' is actually an extremely difficult post-academy exam with a failure rate of over 66%." He declared.

Sakura's jaw dropped and Sasuke's eyes bulged slightly in shock. Naruto himself frowned, grimacing uncomfortably at the knowledge of the failure rate. The jounin may have been exaggerating but he somehow doubted it was by much.

This…could be a problem.

He glanced at his teammates.

Yeah…definitely a problem.

.-.

**The next day…**

Naruto woke early the next day, though not through any purposeful effort on his part – he'd killed the latest in a long series of alarm clocks last week – and rose quickly. Not even ten minutes later he was dressed, armed, and out the door, his zanpakuto settled comfortably on his back and five rapidly devoured cups of instant ramen settling comfortably in his stomach. If Kakashi actually thought he'd be following that particular suggestion, he was nuts.

He got to the training ground a good half hour before anyone else got there, and set the small pack of trapping supplies he'd brought with him on the ground. Once he made sure that no one else – that he could sense anyway – was there, he quickly made a few shadow clones to survey the area as he removed everything from ninja wire to smoke bombs and quickly passed half of them to the only clone that had stayed behind. Soon enough the bag was empty, his own arms were also full of caltrops and kunai, and his scouting clones had finally dispelled.

He smirked at the exact copy of himself. "You know what to do."

It nodded, and silently blurred out of existence in one direction as Naruto moved to set up a few more basic traps around the clearing itself, hoping as he did so that this extra insurance wouldn't be needed for whatever Kakashi had planned. He had a feeling it would though, so he quickly set to work.

Soon enough, Naruto had disappeared as thoroughly as his clone, leaving behind only the empty, slightly shabby, pale yellow backpack as a sign that he'd ever been there in the first place.

By the time his teammates joined him on the training ground, the bag had somehow vanished and he was seemingly asleep, leaning against the back of one of the training posts. Sasuke took note of this, but ultimately dismissed it out of hand.

Sakura never even noticed, seeing as Sasuke had arrived before her.

.-.

"Hey guys. Good morning."

"YOU'RE LATE!"

As Sasuke and Kakashi blinked dazedly at Sakura, temporarily deafened by the sheer volume, Naruto, who had been woken by his zanpakuto at the arrival of the jounin, stood and stretched. Turning, he took note of Kakashi and Sasuke's stunned expressions and Sakura's hard breathing and came to a very accurate conclusion of what had happened. He was suddenly very grateful for his earplugs when Sakura then turned on him as well.

"AND WHEN DID YOU GET HERE!"

He blinked lazily at her anger-twisted face and soundlessly screaming lips. "I'm sorry, did you say something?" he asked, deadpan. Then he turned his attention to Kakashi, who was suddenly perfectly fine. Inwardly, the scarecrow was beaming with a kind of pride, even if he hadn't actually taught the blond anything yet.

Sasuke finally began to recover himself when the jounin removed his own pack and dug around in it for a moment before pulling out an alarm clock, of all things. "This is set to go off at noon, two hours from now." The Cyclops said. (Incidentally, Naruto had gotten there at seven-thirty, a half hour before he'd _told_ them to meet.)

Kakashi then pulled two gently chiming bells on strings from his right pocket. "And here's two bells. You have until noon to take these from me. Anyone who can't get a bell from me, won't be getting lunch, and I'll not only tie you to one of those stumps," he pointed at the suddenly menacing trio of training posts, the center of which Naruto had been sleeping against earlier, "I'll eat your lunch right in front of you."

Sasuke and Sakura's stomachs growled loudly, seemingly despairing at the announcement, and Naruto got a couple of accusing stares from them when his didn't make a sound. He scratched his cheek with a finger, shrugging. "…I had a big dinner last night," he lied, suddenly even more grateful than usual for the ramen he'd eaten earlier that morning.

Sakura seemed to accept the pronouncement easily enough, but Sasuke just scowled deeper. If it was because he'd caught the lie or was just constipated was anyone's guess though. Kakashi raised a skeptical eyebrow and coughed lightly. Their attention was immediately focused on him again. "Anyway…you will only need to get one bell, but there are only two to begin with so one of you will definitely be tied to a post. And…" the silver haired man's visible eye narrowed, "that same person, who doesn't get that bell, fails. So, one of you will be sent back to the academy as well."

They all gulped; some obviously – Sakura seemed to be shaking slightly as well – and some less obtrusively – Sasuke's scowl only deepened.

Kakashi's eye relaxed slightly then, returning back to its characteristic apathy as he continued. "You can use anything you want in this exercise," he began, his voice lingering mockingly over the last word, as if this were a game rather than something that could determine the course of the rest of their lives. "Kunai, shuriken," he eyed katana slung over the back of his blond prospective student and thought of the kodachi that that he hadn't seriously used since his Anbu days, but had brought along just in case the kid was skilled enough with his own sword that kunai wouldn't suffice, "swords, jutsu…but you won't succeed unless you come at me with the intent to kill."

They were all silent for a moment, a tense air thickening around them.

"All-right," he finally said after a long moment. "Begin."

.-.

"The most basic of ninja skills is the ability to hide yourself well…" Kakashi murmured, running his eyes along the edge of the forest. 'And they all seem to have hidden fairly well,' he continued in his thoughts. Sasuke and Sakura's bodies were almost completely concealed by the foliage of the forest. Considering her get up, he could spot Sakura easily, even without relying on chakra sensing. Sasuke was much better concealed, but he could sense the boy's agitated charka from where he was without any difficulty.

'Except…' Kakashi began to spread his senses wider, 'where's Naruto…?' Then, suddenly sensing someone behind him, he turned.

And there stood Naruto, not even attempting to hide. Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the blatant reveal. "You're… a little off, kid."

"So's your hair." Naruto replied matter-of-factly. "Off-white, that is."

"I noticed." Kakashi returned, deadpan, and then sighed. "You're really not taking this very seriously, are you?"

Naruto blinked in surprise. "Of course I am," he said, "But I'm not really all that good at stealth attacks, ya know? I can sneak around with the best of them, but most of my combat skills work much better face to face."

"Really?" Kakashi replied, actually feeling a bit interested, but not allowing it to show.

"Yeah. So I didn't see much point in trying to 'attack from the shadows' or whatever when it wasn't going to work anyway. You already know where the other two are, and I'm sure I wouldn't have fared all that much better, considering the difference in skill."

"Oh?" Kakashi made an interested sound, and asked, "And just how big do you think the difference in skill is?"

"In a straight up fight, there's no way I could beat you." Naruto said, certain. "But you're not asking for a straight up fight. I just need to get that damn bell. And that, I'm pretty sure I can do." He said, a smirk growing on his face, "I might need some help though."

"Are you going to go ask you teammates for help or something then?" Kakashi asked derisively, as if that was the worst thing he could think of the kid doing in this situation, but thought, 'Go then, ask them, it's the only way you stand a –'

"No." Naruto interrupted the jounin's thoughts. Kakashi frowned inwardly, a bit disappointed. "Maybe if they weren't who they are, but the banshee'd be next to useless in this situation, and the gloomy bastard would likely ignore me even if I tried." He shook his head, unaware or uncaring of the bristling of his teammates at his words. "No," he repeated, and reached up to wrap his fingers around the hilt of his sword, "This guy's all the help I need."

Kakashi, slightly confused, tensed imperceptibly at the threatening motion. Naruto drew the long katana in a smooth, effortless motion, the blade not making a sound as he slipped it from its sheath and held it before him steadily. Kakashi quickly took in the boy's grip on the sword, the positioning of his feet and thought, 'There are almost no openings in that stance,' the jounin narrowed his visible eye slightly.

However the boy had managed to learn kenjutsu – and Kakashi was suddenly very curious – he had learned well. If he were to estimate it, the sword easily pushed what might have been a genin level opponent up to at least chunin level, based the boy's own confidence in it and the near instinctive skill he held the blade with.

Kakashi only had a split-second of warning when Naruto's killing intent rose sharply before Naruto was, quite abruptly, right before his swiftly widening eye, almost hovering in midair as time seemed to slow, his blade raised one handedly over his head to begin a violent downwards motion that would undoubtedly split open Kakashi skull were it to make direct contact.

Then it was Naurto's eyes that widened as almost before he could even begin the attack, Kakashi was suddenly gone. Continuing the motion as if he were unable to react in time to the rapid movement of the jounin, he broadened his own senses in an attempt to detect the other shinobi's position. He landed almost silently and immediately ducked beneath the kick that would have at least broken a rib had it connected properly before turning on the balls of his feet to bring his blade up in a deadly diagonal motion that would have carved into Kakashi's torso had he not drawn back in time.

As it was, it just slipped by his side, and missed slicing off the string of one of the bells by less than an inch. Catching the near miss out of the corner of his eye, Kakashi rapidly moved back even further, quickly putting a few feet between himself and his prospective student.

"Ah~h" Naruto smiled almost sheepishly, but didn't make any indication of lowering his guard as he stood. "Just missed it."

Kakashi narrowed his eyes in response, his mind working furiously to analyze the last few seconds. Just missed it? Indeed. Had he been less skilled he would have been completely taken off guard by the unnaturally fast movements – movements that could have only been powered by some kind of chakra technique. But Kakashi hadn't sensed a single chakra spike while or before he moved. Either Naruto was suddenly as skilled at concealing the chakra within his body as he was, or that unreal speed was completely natural – both were rather unlikely, to say the least, but there could be no other explanation.

Then Naruto was gone again, and once more Kakashi just barely managed to dodge a strike that almost managed to take one of his limbs. The katana flew through the air, twisting on a dime to follow up with an attempt at the major artery on the inside of Kakashi's right leg. Just as Kakashi shifted to avoid the swift strike, Naruto changed targets, once again aiming for the bells.

Naruto was suddenly enveloped in a puff of smoke as he made contact. Emerging on the other side of the smoke, he turned back as it dispelled to see that instead of the string or Kakashi he had sliced clean through a log the size of said man's torso.

"As I thought," Kakashi said from his new position closer to the woods, "It'd be useless to try and counter that sword with a normal weapon." He cursed inwardly. His kodachi would be next to useless here, and kunai an even worse option. With the limits he had put on himself for this test, the best he could do was dodge and attempt to counter with taijutsu occasionally. He then cocked his head slightly to his right, suspicion beginning to color his voice, "I can't help but wonder how you got your hands on a blade of such quality."

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the tone and replied after a moment, "…He was a gift."

"…He?"

Naruto smirked. "Mugetsu is more than just a sword, you know."

"Moonless…Sky?"

Naruto raised his blade again, and tilted it slightly. Kakashi suddenly noticed that the wider back of the single edged blade didn't glimmer in the sunlight the way the rest of the sword did. It was a deep, mysterious black, and for the life of him, he didn't know how it was possible for the sword to be forged to look like that.

"It's a bit overkill to use his real power for a test like this though. Maybe if you were actually fighting back…"

Kakashi, distracted, suddenly realized that Naruto had disappeared again and just barely sensed the spike killing intent at his back before he managed to duck away from the strike. Eyes wide, he had to rely on sheer instinct to dodge the next attack, as well as the one after it, and the one after that. Unbelievably, the boy had somehow managed to speed up even more, enough so that Kakashi was beginning to have serious trouble following his movements without the assistance of his sharingan.

"…then I might have to expend some more effort."

'How is this possible? I might be able to understand what he's doing if I…but I can't take that out,' the man thought as he ducked beneath another strike, and swayed to the side just in time to avoid the follow up, '…but seriously…are those idiots at the academy blind? Why was this kid the dead last again…?!'

Still hidden in what might have been an advantageous spot had he not been completely frozen in shock, Sasuke was having similar thoughts. He had thought the day before in the classroom that maybe the other boy might eventually prove enough of a challenge to be termed a kind of rival, but this was ridiculous.

Sakura was similarly stunned speechless. She had been beyond proud to get the top kunoichi spot of the graduating class. It meant that she was the 'best girl' to match Sasuke's 'strongest boy'. She hadn't given much thought to the idiot that would inevitably be matched up with them, and only assumed that he was bound to be much less skilled than her if he was the dead last.

But…he wasn't. Despite all appearances to the contrary, Sakura did possess some common sense and, when Sasuke wasn't involved, was actually rather smart. And Naruto was clearly more skilled than her – was a better ninja than her, despite being at the bottom of the class. If he had been so badly miss-ranked, then what did that say about her? Was her top-ranking a mistake as well..?

She didn't know what to think…and it suddenly seemed as if her whole view of the world was teetering precariously. One more nudge, and it might just flip over on itself entirely.

Though Sasuke and Sakura had enough time to be stunned speechless, Kakashi didn't have such a luxury. Even if he had said 'come at me with the intent to kill', this was just absurd. And, just as he thought the boy might be slowing down – what genin has enough stamina to keep up such a pace indefinitely? – just as the boy seemed to pause for a moment…

It was as if time had come to a standstill.

He could still see the genin before him, crouched low, grip on his sword firm and confident as he held it to his side, but he was also simultaneously aware of the suddenly much shorter white strings fluttering uselessly in the wind at his hip and the light tinkle of two bells clinking together behind him.

"Wha..?"

Then the boy in front of him shivered and disappeared with a slight shimmer and without a sound, and he realized, 'An after image? There's no way–'

"Gotcha that time."

Kakashi swung around to see Naruto standing behind him, sword still poised in the ending stance of the impossibly fast battoujutsu that he had just swept by the jounin with, though one hand had since been removed from the hilt. As the man watched, the genin moved back into a normal standing position and turned, casually resting the black back of his katana on his shoulder as he did so.

He then raised his free hand, and Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke's eyes all widened at the sight of the two glittering bells dangling from the thin strings griped between his fingers.

Kakashi settled back into a more relaxed pose at the sight, and tucked one of his hands casually into a pocket. "So you did." His eyes curved upwards in a mockery of a cheerful smile, and he then called out, "Sakura, Sasuke, would you come out then?"

Slowly, Sakura rose from her crouched position in the bushes and after a long moment Sasuke followed suit, dropping gracefully from his perch in one of the sturdier trees.

Kakashi turned his attention back to the boy who had managed to catch him so thoroughly off guard. "Well then, what are you going to do with that extra bell, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto glanced at his prize, meager as it was, and thought for a moment before smirking slightly and sighing. "Heh. Of course."

Kakashi raised his visible brow in inquiry as the other two genin shifted uncomfortably in anticipation. "What?"

"Well, there's no way it could be that easy, could it?" Naruto replied. "Of course, you were holding back a lot, but still…" he cocked his head slightly. "Honestly, this is really annoying though…" Naruto made an exasperated face and looked at the bells again. He then finally sheathed his blade again and chucked both bells at his prospective teammates' heads.

Sasuke raised his hand in time to catch it easily, but Sakura, much less coordinated, didn't register the movement until the object in question was already airborne and on a collision course with her skull. Somehow, the bell managed to land perfectly in her hair, resting comfortably behind where her hitai-ate held the pink strands back from her face.

All of them, except for the swiftly reddening with anger Sakura, stared, slightly shocked, at the innocent looking bell.

"…Oops?" Naruto finally broke the sudden silence with, his voice rising at the end to make the utterance into an uncertain question.

"NA-RU-TO!"

The boy in question swiftly dodged the angry haymaker the bi-polar girl swung at his head, and then just as quickly ducked away from the follow up punch to hide behind Sasuke. Said boy sighed, irritated, but didn't move.

"Anyway!" he shouted as Sakura hesitated at the sight of her crush suddenly being between her and her target. Somehow, the bell had contrived to remain securely lodged behind the pinkette's headband and Naruto's mouth twitched slightly upwards at the sight before he managed to continue. "I was going to say that they can have the bells."

Sakura's anger swiftly dissipated at the blond's words, her eyes widening as she finally reached up remove the bell from her hair. Sasuke was more suspicious, and after staring at the bell for moment, turned slightly to glare at the other boy. "Why." He demanded.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Because I want to?"

Sasuke glared harder.

"Fine." Naruto sighed slightly. "Because I don't particularly feel like condemning you to another year of Iruka's lectures and multiple squealing fangirls, instead of just one," he said, smirking slightly at the thought – Sasuke almost gave a reflexive shudder – "And waiting one more year won't hinder me too much."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the blond before chucking the bell right back at him. It bounced off his forehead, leaving a distinct red mark. "I don't need any favors from you. Keep the bell; I'll just pass next year without you."

"Wait – Wait a minute!" Sakura interjected suddenly, suddenly feeling ashamed of the joy that had leapt into her chest when Naruto had said he'd give them the bells. She quickly shoved her own bell into Sasuke's fingers. "You guys deserve to be here much more than me." She swallowed almost painfully. "I – I'll be the one to go back to the academy."

"Well, isn't this heartwarming," Kakashi was suddenly hovering over the three of them, "Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that."

The three of them paused mid motion – Sakura still shoving the silver bell at Sasuke, Sasuke opening his mouth to say something further (whether it would have been a refusal or not was anyone's guess), and Naruto rubbing the mark Sasuke's thrown bell had left on his forehead.

He eye-smiled at them, a sense of impending doom hovering around his body. "I get the final say on if any of you pass or not. And I say…" he paused for dramatic effect, the air seeming to darken around him, and the three pre-teens braced themselves for bad news.

"…You all pass."

The three genin stumbled in shock, and stared at him, stunned. They then quickly recovered, celebrating in their own ways. Sasuke quickly stifled the smile that wanted to spread across his face, folded his arms, and nodded. Sakura squealed in excitement, her mind once more spinning off into fantasies of what it would be like to be on the same team as Sasuke. Naruto unobtrusively pumped his fist in triumph and grinned, not bothering to suppress the expression the way his new teammate had.

"Alright," Kakashi began speaking again, attracting his new genin team's attention for the last time. "There's just one more thing I need to tell you before you can go celebrate." He motioned for them to follow him, and the four ninja moved out of the clearing, heading back in the directing of their original meeting spot. Soon enough they were back where they started.

The three confused genin stood awkwardly as their new sensei moved towards the elegantly carved rock they had noticed in passing earlier when they were waiting for said jounin to arrive. He rested his hand on it for a moment in respectful silence before turning back to Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura. He took a breath and said, "I choose this training ground for a reason – and not only because it was where I used to train myself. And that reason is right here." He patted the rock gently, and with an almost painful affection.

He traced a few of the characters of the countless names carved into the panes of the stone. "The names carved on this memorial stone are those of ninja who are recognized as heroes of this village." The look in Kakashi's eye was more serious than any of the three had yet seen on his mostly hidden face as he turned his gaze back on them. They all gulped nervously under it. "But, the ones remembered here aren't normal heroes. They are heroes who died in the line of duty, protecting Konohagakure and their teammates." He eye narrowed slightly, sadness tingeing it. "…My best friend's name is carved here." After he said this he paused for a moment. Far more faces then just Obito's flew before his mind's eye.

He closed his eye for a moment to shake off the intruding memories before refocusing his gaze on his new students. "You three are the first – everyone else would just take everything I said at face value. 'A ninja must be able to see underneath the underneath'," he quoted. "But all of you were willing to go back to the academy for each other. In this world those who break the rules and codes are viewed as trash. But you know what?" he asked wistfully, "Those who would abandon their teammates are even lower than that."

The three genin stared at him, still taken aback by the man's sudden seriousness. He then clapped his hands together in an abruptly cheery manner, breaking the intense mood he had created himself entirely. "So! All three of you pass, and tomorrow Team 7 will begin its duties." He declared, and then continued to give them directions as to when and where they would meet the following morning.

Naruto let out an inaudible sigh of relief as; once again, his ears were protected by his increasingly treasured earplugs from Sakura's excited squeals. The girl was squirming excitedly as she ranted in a high-pitched and likely much louder than she thought it was, voice about her fantasies of being on the same team with her crush. Said crush completely ignored her, despite her continued gushing, and walked rapidly in the opposite direction, mumbling under his breath about needing to train more under his breath. Kakashi once more pulled out his Icha Icha, and meandered away, a perverted, high-pitched giggle erupting from under his mask every so often.

Looking at them thoughtfully as they all made their way out of the training ground, a thought occurred to him and Naruto wondered, 'Is it at all possible that it's _me_ that's the normal one on this team?'

He took another glance at Sakura's squealing, Kakashi's equally high-pitched giggling, and Sasuke – who was currently planning a new regimen to himself out loud, and, apparently, to himself, if quietly – and decided that, yes, that was a distinct possibility.

Being as he was, perfectly aware of the oddities of his own existence…well, wasn't that a scary thought?

* * *

**Omake: The Peeping Orb**

"Oi! Old man!" the door of the Hokage's office slammed open, bounced off the wall violently, and slammed closed again rapidly, the swing just missing the small blond boy that had shouted the rude greeting.

Sarutobi looked up from his paperwork tiredly, ignoring the swearing of his secretary, who he could still distinctly hear through the now closed door. "….Naruto." he said, exasperated, though secretly grateful for the interruption. It never ends… "What is it this time?"

But the boy, who had moved closer to his desk, seemed distracted. Following his line of sight, he found that his eyes came to rest on his scrying orb. He chuckled then, distinctly reminded of the boy's mother – always sidetracked by something shiny. He guessed he'd just never happened to have it out while the boy was here before.

"What's that?" the child asked, eyes wide, pointing.

Sarutobi smiled, "That's my scrying orb. I use it together with a jutsu to keep an eye on people."

Naruto's eyes squinted as he thought, "…so you use it to spy on people?"

The Hokage blinked in surprise. "Yes, I suppose you could call it that."

Naruto's eyes suddenly narrowed then, the glint in them saying he'd made a connection with something he already knew and the result likely wouldn't be good – for someone else, anyway. The Hokage frowned slightly, suddenly apprehensive of whatever Naruto was about to blurt out. "The girls at the hot springs are always complaining about men spying on them." He said matter-of-factly, "But they just call it peeping."

He gasped and stared at the Hokage accusingly. "Are you a _peeper_, Jiji?!" he asked, horrified.

"No, no, of course not!" he quickly protested. "I just –"

"I don't know why anyone would want to peep, but I know it's bad…" Naruto said, talking over the Hokage's response. Then, he gasped lightly and the wide, horrified blue eyes returned to him, "Are you a _pervert_, Jiji?! A _peeping _pervert?!"

Sarutobi quickly protested again, "No! It's a _scrying orb_, not a –"

Naruto cut him off, "Jiji is a pervert! And he uses a peeping orb on the bathhouses!"

"I do not!"

Naruto glared, "You do!" he accused.

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do – oh, for heaven's sake, I am not getting into this with you!" Sarutobi growled, standing abruptly. He could hear the chuckles of the Anbu, and flushed almost invisibly with embarrassment.

Naruto blinked and shrugged, "Ok."

Sarutobi subsided abruptly, blinking in confusion at the sudden concession. "Wha – what?" Naruto had never surrendered an argument like that before.

"The ladies also said that a pervert that constantly denies being a pervert is called a closet pervert, so you're a closet perv, Jiji." The boy stated, certain of this conclusion. "They also said that pointing it out is rude."

"…Eh?" And, suddenly, the Hokage was struggling to keep up with the rapid change in direction. He quickly sat down.

"But I'm rude, so I'll probably bring your closet perv-ness and your peeping ball up again," the blond continued, oblivious.

"…It's a scrying orb. And perv-ness isn't a word." He wasn't going to let go of this, was he? Ever. "…And I'm not a closet pervert." He belatedly stated.

Naruto blatantly ignored the Hokage's response. "So, until then, you can come and buy me some ramen. I'm hungry."

Sarutobi sighed deeply. He'd completely lost this one, hadn't he? "…Fine." Anything to make the kid drop it.

Naruto grinned.

Yes. Yes, he had.

* * *

_**Author's Note**_

So, yeah. Been awhile hasn't it? God, I'm so sorry. You guys have been wonderful, waiting so long for this chapter – Over a year!...maybe two, I lost track… – But, as I said, I just lost track of this story, especially over the last year, which has, at times, seemed endless – just, continuously, one thing after another, after another.

This includes (but is far from limited to) multiple car accidents in my family – one of which left me pretty badly injured and unable to move one of my arms for a few months ( I was actually very lucky though, seeing as I managed to smash the truck I was driving into a telephone pole…and also, incidentally, mowed down a speed limit sign in the process…) and two of which utterly totaled the vehicles involved – a very sick grandmother, a trashed laptop, yet more car troubles, loaded semesters at college, work, and more work, and… *sigh* Well, I'm sure you get the idea.

I finally got back on track with this a month or two ago after I finally got my new laptop (four months after I accidentally dropped the first one down the stairs…), and I tried to make this chapter longer than usual to make up for all the delays – Almost 8000 words! – and I honestly hope that you guys all think it made up for the wait. As a bonus, I even added on that omake – which I, rather virtuously, I think, did not count in that word count – and I hope you thought was at least amusing, as I'm perfectly aware of my weaknesses when it comes to writing straight humor - anything funny that usually gets into my writing is mostly accidental.

Now, I swear I'll do my best to get the next chapter out a lot sooner than I did this one!

~ Aljan Moonfire


	6. Chapter 5: To Nami no Kuni

_**Aljan Moonfire Does Not Own Naruto or Bleach.**_

* * *

_**Chapter 5 – To Nami no Kuni**_

* * *

**A Month and a Half Later…**

Naruto woke to the dark of the morning before the sun rose at the bidding of his newest alarm clock. It shrieked loudly into the silence, only to be immediately silenced by the kunai that pinned it the wall only moments later. The many similar puncture wounds in the wall around it showed that this was far from the first time he had killed an alarm clock in such a way.

The now irreversibly awake boy glanced at the time frozen on the now broken clock's face and groaned, "Dammit. I'm going to be late if I don't hurry…" he sighed and quickly got out of bed, heading towards his closet with a resigned slouch.

The sun was just beginning to rise from behind the Hokage monument when Naruto finished running up it. He slowed down and settled into a jog towards the outcropping that marked the beginning of the first Hokage's face, waving his hand over his head to the figure standing there.

"I'm here, I'm here!" he called, quickly attracting their attention.

They smiled, amused, at him before turning back to look down at the village. "You're late, Naruto-kun."

"Nope, I said I'd be here at sunrise, and here I am!" He replied, grinning, as he reached her. The person he was talking to was an elderly woman, with long, grey-streaked maroon hair and dark eyes, pupil-less and deep with earned wisdom. She was wearing an old fashioned kimono, elaborate and with long sleeves, and had the majority of her hair pinned up in two buns on either side of her head. Though old, it was clearly apparent that once she had been very beautiful, and some of it still showed in her eyes and bone structure.

She was still taller than him though, and she smiled softly down at him as she agreed, "Well, I suppose that's true."

"Of course it is, Baa-chan."

She snorted softly in amusement. "You always manage to make me laugh somehow, Naruto-kun."

"It's a gift." He replied smugly, grinning again.

They continued to talk as the sun rose further over the mountain - at one point Naruto sat, feet hanging over the Shodai's brow and she soon followed to kneel in seiza beside him - until finally Naruto asked, "So, why did you call me out here so early, Baa-chan? You know you can come and talk to me any time, right."

"…Yes." She agreed, "…but I didn't want anyone to overhear you talking to me about this. I know you've been caught talking to some of the others at times." She smiled at him again, dark eyes tilting up slightly at the corners before smoothing down again as her voice grew more serious. "I've been watching over you for a long time, Naruto-kun, since before you were even born…I was even there when the Kyuubi was sealed into you…but slowly, I've felt his aura growing ever smaller within you."

Here the woman seemed to reach on the subject she had been so concerned about. "It was always smaller than when he had been sealed inside your mother, since your father split him in half before he sealed the remainder into you, but…Naruto-kun, I haven't been able to figure it out… what is going on?"

"…Ah." Naruto was quiet for a long moment, before, after determining that there was really no one nearby, he replied. "…When the Kyuubi was…well, if you were there, and already…well, then you likely know what was really odd about it." He said reluctantly.

"That…strange being the Shinigami put in you?" She asked slowly.

"Yes." He was quiet for a moment as he struggled to find the right words. After a long moment he picked up his sword from where he had settled it beside himself earlier, held it before himself, and drew it. Displaying the strange blade for the first time to the woman, he continued, "This is the physical form of that spirit, the one who placed himself within me that night. His name is Mugetsu. He is what is called a zanpakuto – a slayer of souls. He has the power to slay, purify, and absorb souls."

The old woman's mouth opened in a small 'o' of understanding. "Then, it – he – has been absorbing the Kyuubi's spirit?"

"Yes. It's power too, because he says that the Bijuu are basically just physically manifested souls. It's why normal humans, even shinobi, aren't able to permanently hurt them, even if they can see them." Naruto elaborated, "And since he's been doing that since I was a toddler, the Kyuubi's almost completely gone at this point. A few more months, and I'll have nothing but an empty seal painted on my stomach."

"…I see." She was quiet for a long moment before leaning back to look out of the village once more. The sun had risen almost completely by this point, and it finally became obvious that the woman Naruto was seated beside wasn't normal – in fact, she was vaguely translucent. At times he could almost see through her, and his eyes were once again caught by the short silver chain emerging from her chest as it clinked slightly when she shifted.

He quickly looked up again at her face when she spoke up once more. "Naruto-kun, when I died, I decided to stay in order to watch over the one thing I left behind to threaten this village. I watched over your mother, and when she died I watched over you." She was quiet for a long moment before continuing. "But it seems that that threat no longer exists now. I am…unsure of what I should do now." She kept her eyes on the village as she spoke, wistful and almost sad as she confided this trouble to him. "My duty seems to be nearly complete now, and I… I think I have forgotten how to go about moving on to whatever comes next. It has been so long…" She trailed off.

Naruto watched her for a time before his thoughts were interrupted by the familiar voice inside his head. His eyes unfocused for a moment before he nodded and returned his attention to the ghost he had been talking to for the last hour and nodded. "Baa-chan," he said, catching her attention, "Mugetsu doesn't just hurt souls, he can also send them on to the next life if they need a guide."

She jerked in surprise and swiftly turned to look at him directly. "Really?"

"Yeah." He blinked back at her and asked, "Do you want to go?"

She exhaled softly, eyes closing. "Yes, very much. Almost my whole family is there, nearly all of the Uzumaki and Senju clans; my husband, my children…only you and my granddaughter are left in this world," she said, before quickly amending, "Well, that I know of at least."

He nodded. "Then I'll send you there. If it'll make you happy…"

"Yes, it would." Then she hesitated, "But you said that he's not gone yet, didn't you?" she asked reluctantly.

"Yeah," Naruto said obliviously, before, "Oh…do you want to wait until he's fully gone then?" he asked.

"I should, no, I will," she said calmly. "I won't leave this world until my duty is complete." She declared, rising to her feet. "But, thank you, Naruto-kun. When it is done, I'll definitely take you up on that offer." She smiled down at him as he got to his feet as well.

"You got it," Naruto swore, "It's a promise, Mito-baa-chan."

They locked eyes for a long moment before Mito finally registered how high the sun had gotten. "Naruto-kun, don't you usually go to meet your team around this time?"

He followed her gaze to rest on the sun's height and cursed, "Dammit! If I don't go now, then I'll be even later than Kakashi-sensei!" In moments he was over half way to the beginning of the stairs that he had climbed only a couple of hours ago, sword slung once more over his shoulder. "Bye, Baa-chan! I'll see you next time!" He shot back over his shoulder as he disappeared down the stairs, vanishing from sight less than a second after he finished speaking.

"That boy…" the ghost sighed, laughter in her tone.

.-.

**Later That Day…**

If Naruto were to sum up D-ranks in a few words, it would probably be something like this: Boring - mind-numbingly boring. And unbelievably messy, and infuriating, and embarrassing, and just, all around the worst thing he could conceive of being forced to do.

Honestly, Naruto had simply come to a decision. He refused to do any more D-ranks. Especially, if he had to chase that damn cat even one more time…

"…shopping in the neighboring village, helping with the potato digging…"

A cat yowling in torment, followed by a loud crash and a shrieking cry of, "Oh no, Tora-chan!" interrupted the Third Hokage's droning.

"…or once again catching the Daimyo's wife's cat." Sarutobi continued, concluding his listing of the currently uncompleted D-ranks.

Naruto's eyes widened in horror, and he quickly glanced at his sensei as he heard the last item on the list. His evil sensei, that had specifically chosen the Tora mission for the last two weeks in a row. No. There was no way he was dealing with that little monster again.

"Old man," Naruto said, interrupting his sensei before he could even begin, "Can't you give us a real mission, and not these pathetic chores?"

His team had varied reactions to his impatient words. Sasuke glanced at him when he said it, and thought, '…I agree,' Sakura grumbled silently about showing respect to the Hokage, and Kakashi just sighed inwardly, thinking, 'I was wondering which of them would snap first.'

Sarutobi arched an eyebrow at the boy in slight surprise, if only at how long it had taken the boy to complain, while beside him, further down the long desk, Iruka – who had been assisting at the mission assignment desk in between semesters at the academy - raised his voice in protest. "But you're just rookies! Everyone starts off with simple duties and then has to work their way up!"

"We've been doing this for over a month though, we're ready for a higher level mission," Naruto retorted calmly. "I swear!"

Kakashi sighed audibly this time, thinking, 'I'm going to get yelled at later for this…'

The Hokage kept his silence as Iruka and Naruto spoke, and then said, "…Ok then," with a slight smirk.

"What! Hokage-sama…" Iruka spoke up again in shock, but soon calmed when Sarutobi gave him a quieting look. Team 7 was also surprised – Kakashi quickly hid it, as did Sasuke, but Naruto pumped his fist in celebration as Sakura gaped unattractively at the Hokage.

"If you want it that much," the Third continued after quieting Iruka, "Then I'll give you a C-rank mission. It's for the protection of a certain individual…"

"Who?" Sakura asked, finally recovering her composure.

"I'll call him in right now," the Hokage said, and gestured for a chunin to do so.

Soon enough, the door to the mission room opened again to reveal a middle aged man with spiky grey hair being held back by a length of knotted rope, sloppy dark clothing, a beard, moustache, and small glasses. As he leaned on the door frame with one hand, he took a gulp from the sake bottle in his other and said, "What's this? They're all a bunch of super brats." He took another swig from the bottle and asked incredulously, "Are they really ninja? They all look way too super young to do a good job of protecting me."

Naruto felt his eyebrow twitch with annoyance, and had to stop himself from going for his sword.

"Bah!" the old man said. "Well, whatever then; I'm the super expert bridge builder, Tazuna-sama. I expect you super brats to provide me with super protection until I get back to my country and complete my bridge."

Naruto stared at the old drunk man incredulously, and caught sight of the slight smirk on Sarutobi's face out of the corner of his eye. The old man had given him the worst client possible on purpose, hadn't he! Damn it. Maybe it would have been better to stick to the D-ranks after all…

Then he heard the Daimyo's wife sobbing after her cat again in the background and shivered slightly. Never mind – anything was better than another D-rank – especially that one. Even guarding this old drunkard.

.-.

**The Next Day, On the Road…**

"Um, Tazuna-san," Sakura asked, "you're from Nami no Kuni (the Land of Waves), right?"

Tazuna just gave her a slightly contemptuous look and said, "What about it?" with a grunt in reply.

She hesitated at his attitude, and turned instead to Kakashi, "Kakashi-sensei, are there any ninja in Nami?"

Kakashi glanced at her and said, "No," before going on to explain why that was, and giving a short explanation of the five great ninja countries as a bonus.

While Kakashi was giving Sakura a lesson on the basic ninja politics she should have learned years ago in the academy, especially if she was really top in the class in book work, Naruto had taken the lead, and was keeping a wary eye on the road ahead.

One of the first things that he had learned from Mugetsu was not only how to utilize his own spiritual pressure in bursts and to boost his speed and strength, but also how to sense it in others. This was particularly easy in this world, the sword had told him, because the people here had no idea what spiritual power – or reiryoku - was, let alone how to hide it from his senses once they were trained enough. Learning how to sense others through reiryoku was something he had worked steadily at over the past few years after learning how useful it could be. As long as his senses were keen enough, no one would be able to hide from him.

And this was important now because he had felt two people following and watching them from relatively nearby since they'd left Konoha. Though he still wasn't as skilled as Mugetsu, who could precisely pinpoint them, he could detect them easily enough. And they seemed to be lying in wait up ahead. As they got closer to them, he began to wonder who they were after.

If they knew who they were, both himself and Sasuke were viable targets – he being who, and what, he was, and Sasuke being the 'Last Uchiha'. Kakashi was even an option, though whoever it was seemed much too weak to his senses to even think about taking him on. Sakura…probably wasn't even a possibility though.

The last option was their client; a man who seemed intent on getting himself as drunk as possible, and also seemed unnecessarily nervous about their guarding abilities. Everyone knew that ninja started young, but even then they were known to be stronger than any small band of unorganized bandits. So, he must be worried about them facing something they should be unable to handle as new genin; something like…

"…don't worry," Kakashi's voice intruded on his thinking, seeming to be coming to a conclusion, "There won't be any ninja combat on a C-rank mission."

Naruto's eyes narrowed in on Tazuna as Kakashi said this, and he nodded to himself as the man flinched at the jounin's words. So, he was right then.

"Then we won't come into contact with foreign ninja?" Sakura confirmed.

"Of course not!" Kakashi laughed, ruffling her hair.

Tazuna flinched again, and looked away, almost guiltily.

Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto watched as Sasuke caught Tazuna's reaction as well. He knew there was no way Kakashi hadn't either, despite his seeming distraction. The only oblivious one was Sakura, who seemed comforted by Kakashi's reassurances.

As he walked past a small puddle on the ground, he tensed slightly in preparation. When nothing happened, he kept walking with barely a hitch in his step, confused. When nothing happened to his genin teammates or the client either, he frowned, and turned around just in time to see a pair of masked men rise from the puddle behind his sensei.

Before he could do more than shout out, "Kakashi-sensei!" they had him wrapped in a long spiked chain, arms pressed to his sides, entirely immobile.

"What…?" was all Kakashi seemed able to get out before another voice interrupted him.

"One down…!" one of them growled, before both pulled on the chain, hard.

As Kakashi seemed to be ripped to pieces, Naruto stretched out his senses, and was relieved to feel the spiritual signature of the Hatake appear in the branches of a nearby tree.

"Kyaa!" Sakura screamed girlishly, "Kakashi-sensei!"

Then the two men burst into motion, almost vanishing from sight with their speed, before reappearing behind Naruto. "Two down," they growled, thrusting forward with spiked claws into his gut.

"Naruto!" Sakura screamed again, but before she could even get the word fully out, Naruto's body shivered out of existence. The gauntleted men only had a moment to blink in shock, before a sandaled foot impacted with one of their cheeks. One attacker slammed into the other, and the force of the kick swiftly sent them flying towards the other side of the road as Naruto landed calmly where they had been only a moment before.

As they flew, Sasuke spun two kunai out of his pouch and threw them at the loose chain, pinning it to a nearby tree. Within seconds though, they had recovered their footing and detached the chain from their gauntlets. A mere moment later, they were rushing around Naruto, disregarding Sasuke entirely, aiming for Sakura, and Tazuna, who was standing, shocked, behind her.

Naruto quickly pushed himself forward again, landing on the shoulders on the closest one, slamming his body forward with the force of it. Seconds later, the man's skull was driven into the dirt by a hand with enough force to crater it around the impact area, knocking him unconscious instantly.

The other though, continued to move forward, and just as he got within arm's reach of the pink-haired girl, she snapped out of her shock enough to yell, "Tazuna-san, get back," before pushing him back herself, A second later, Sasuke landed in front of her himself, kunai ready to defend. Before he could though, the second man collapsed like a puppet with cut strings as Kakashi appeared just in time to clothesline him into unconsciousness.

Naruto skidded to a halt in front of his sensei, pulling up just in time to avoid crashing into him. He had immediately rushed to defend Tazuna with the others once he had confirmed that the first one he had taken out was completely unconscious. Behind the tall man, Sakura gaped with relief and joy, thinking 'Kakashi-sensei, you're not dead after all!'

Tazuna sighed in relief too, thinking. 'Whew…I'm saved…'

Sasuke gaped as well for a moment, before reigning in the expression and thinking, 'What a show-off…!'

Naruto, once he came to a standstill, just muttered, "It's about time," to himself quietly.

"Good job, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura. Sorry I didn't intervene sooner." Kakashi said, walking over to where Naruto had left the unconscious attacker in the small crater. As he lifted the man easily with his free hand, Kakashi looked at Tazuna out of the corner of his eye and said, "And Tazuna-san, I think I need to talk to you…"

About five minutes later found all five of them standing around the now securely tied up figures of their attackers. One of them slowly came back into consciousness as Kakashi spoke. "These guys are chunin level missing-nin of Kirigakure (the Village Hidden in the Mist). They are known to keep fighting no matter what; The Demon Brothers."

"How did you read our movements?" The conscious one managed to growl through his breathing mask as he glared at Kakashi. The one Naruto had taken out still seemed to be completely out of it.

"…On a sunny day like this," Kakashi commented mildly, "when it hasn't rained in over a week, there shouldn't be any puddles."

"If you knew that, then why did you let the brats fight?" Tazuna interjected. When Naruto glared at him, he gulped slightly, remembering how unbelievably fast the boy had moved – he hadn't even seen most of it happen, but he knew the kid had taken one of them down all by himself - and quickly amended his words somewhat, "Not that they didn't do a decent job or anything, but…"

Kakashi was quiet for a moment, but soon replied, "If I had wanted to, I could have killed them instantly, but…there was something I need to know: who they were after."

"What do you mean?" Tazuna said nervously.

"Meaning…" Kakashi said leadingly, "Were they after us…or you." He stared steadily at the increasingly nervous Tazuna as he continued, "Clashes between ninja aren't uncommon, even when their mission don't conflict, but we haven't heard anything about there being ninja after you. Our mission was a C-rank one to simply protect you from bandits or thieves. But they were, indeed, after you. That makes this a least a B-rank mission. While I'm sure you had a reason to lie about the mission ranking, it causes problems when you do something like that. We were only supposed to protect you from minor thugs until you completed your bridge," Kakashi repeated. "By just taking even these guys out, we are now operating beyond our duties."

Sakura gulped nervously as he said that, and immediately said, "We're not ready for a mission like this. Let's just go back…" Even Inner Sakura was nervous, and said, '**If something like this happens again, we'll definitely die…**' though of course, only Sakura could hear her.

Kakashi glanced at her, before turning to look at his other two students. "She's technically right, there may be even stronger enemies…we probably should return…"

"No way," Naruto said, interrupting him. 'This is exactly what I've been looking for..,' he thought, 'A way to test myself against someone strong…' "The old man needs protection. If we hadn't have been here, he'd already be dead. I'm not going to just abandon him like this."

Kakashi raised a brow at him, but just turned to Sasuke and asked, "What about you?"

"Hn," the brunette grunted. "I agree…" Sakura looked up hopefully, but her spirits sunk as he continued, "…with Naruto. I want to continue the mission."

"Hmmm…unfortunately, it's not really up to you, so…" Kakashi hummed thoughtfully, but before he could finish, Tazuna interrupted him.

"Wait, sensei," the man interjected, "I need to talk to you about this mission." When Kakashi turned to him, he continued, "You are right when you say that this mission is probably completely outside your duties. You see, a super dangerous man is after my life. "

"A 'super dangerous man'?" Kakashi replied, "Who?"

"You've probably at least heard his name before. He's a wealthy shipping magnate named Gato."

"Gato? You mean from that Gato company? He's said to be one of the richest men in the world…"

"Yes, that Gato. Officially, he runs a large shipping company, but in reality he secretly sells drugs and smuggles illegal items into countries by taking over other business and small, unprotected lands… Lands like Nami no Kuni. He's a super nasty man." Taking a deep breath, the old man continued, "He set his eyes on Nami about a year ago, and through bribes and violence, he quickly took control of my country's shipping industry and now has a monopoly over all the business traffic in and out of the country. The only thing he has to fear now is the completion of my bridge."

"And so, since you are the one building it, he wants to eliminate you…" Sakura said, her nervousness slowly disappearing as she focused on something else.

"And those ninja were hired by Gato…?" Sasuke murmured.

"What I still don't understand," Kakashi interrupted, "is why, if you knew all this, you didn't apply for a higher level mission…"

"…Nami no Kuni is super poor now, because of Gato. Even the Daimyo doesn't have much money. Of course, we common people have even less. There's no way we could afford it…" Tazuna said. Kakashi nodded slowly in understanding as the man continued dramatically, "And, if you quit the mission now, I'll definitely be killed. But… there's no need to worry!" He smiled widely, and very fakely. "If I die my cute ten-year-old grandson will just cry for a few days…and my daughter will live a sad life, hating Konoha forever…but it won't be your fault…not at all…" He turned away then, as if to regain his composure.

Kakashi flinched slightly, as he felt the accusing glares of his cute genin piercing his back. "All right, then…"He finally said, "We'll at least guard you until you get back to your country…"

Out of sight of the ninja, Tazuna's sad face immediately disappeared.

'I win.'

.-.

**Two Days Later…**

"What a thick mist," Sakura murmured quietly, straining to see something beyond the small boat they were currently floating in.

The boat man, standing in the back of the boat and steering it with a long pole said, "We should see the bridge soon," in reply, just as quietly. "Nami no Kuni will be at its base."

It had been around two days since their encounter with the Demon Brothers, and they were just reaching Nami no Kuni now. There hadn't been any attacks since then, but the entire party was tense, just waiting for something to happen.

"That…is a huge bridge…" Naruto said quietly a moment later, gaping up at the monolithic structure in the distance.

Silently, the rest of the boat agreed, but didn't say anything in reply, wary of alerting anyone to their presence.

Soon enough, just as the boatman had said, the shore slowly swam into sight between the layers of mist. It was guarded by not only the half built bridge, but also a series of levees that likely protected the settlement on the shore during bad storms. As the boat made its way under one of them, the boatman leaned closer to Tazuna to say, "It seems like we've avoided detection so far, but, just in case, I'll take a route that has a lot of vegetation. It'll make it harder for any enemies to spot us."

"Thanks," the bridge builder said in reply, sure to keep his voice low as well.

It didn't take long for the man to weave the craft through the weeds and water bound trees to reach a small, out of the way dock. As the small group unloaded themselves from the boat, he said, "This is as far as I go," he gulped slightly, looking around warily, before giving Tazuna a respectful nod. "Goodbye, and good luck."

"Yeah," Tazuna gave him a small smile back, "And thanks a lot."

Moments later, the man had once again pushed the boat away from the dock and into the concealing mist. He quickly disappeared from sight, and they all turned to begin walking further inland. "Okay then," Tazuna said, "Get me home safely."

"Yes, yes…" Kakashi replied absently as the genin moved forward ahead of him. His face was mostly blank, but he was thinking hard on what obstacles may be ahead. 'It won't be more chunin when we're next attacked. After the first failed, it will most likely be a jounin, like me…'

.-.

A couple of hours later, they were nearing Tazuna's house, and they were all getting very tense. They knew that if they were going to be attacked it would be very soon. Naruto kept all of his senses open, and immediately felt it when a source of reiryoku appeared in a nearby crowding of shrubbery. He immediately snatched a pair of shuriken from his pouch and flung them into the bushes with a deft flick of his wrist.

His companions jumped at the sudden attack and turned to watch as he spread the branches around where he had chucked the weapons. But he just frowned as all he saw was a terrified rabbit the place where had sensed a person. Picking the animal up by the scruff of its neck, he withdrew from the bush as he spread his senses out once again.

"A bunny!" Sakura exclaimed, seeing what he was holding. "Naruto! What did you do to it!" she yelled, snatching the animal from him in order to comfort it.

Naruto just sighed at her reaction and said, "That's a snow rabbit. It's the middle of summer right now though, it shouldn't be brown."

Kakashi looked at it himself, before warily glancing around as he finished Naruto thought for him, "The only way it could be that color at this time of year is if it were raised in captivity, likely for a sophisticated kawarimi technique."

They had the simultaneous thought as they exchanged a glance, 'They're already here.'

Naruto narrowed his eyes as two signatures appeared in the area nearby. A moment later, Kakashi's eye widened as heard something approaching rapidly, spinning swiftly through the air towards them. "Get down!" he shouted, dragging Tazuna to the ground with him his he rapidly ducked. The genin hit the dirt only seconds behind him, just in time to avoid the giant spinning sword that cut through the air above their heads.

They raised their eyes just in time to see the immense sword cut half way into a tree above them, as well as the man who landed on it. He perched on the handle, and then stood to stare menacingly down at Team 7 and their client as they rose to their feet.

He was tall, even from where they stood below him they could tell that. He wasn't wearing a shirt, just a pair of camouflage shinobi pants and leg and arm warmers. He also had bandages wrapped around his lower face like some kind of mask, a slashed Kirigakure hitai-ate tied lopsidedly around his head, and strangely enough, nearly no eyebrows what so ever.

'This guy is…' Kakashi thought in slight shock as he stared up at him.

Behind the jounin, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura rose to their feet as well, the later also helping their client to stand. The former two just examined their newest opponent as well, though lacking the recognition that Kakashi felt when he saw him. Naruto was honestly more focused on the sword the man was standing on – which he did recognize - and Sasuke just saw another opponent to measure himself against.

"Maa…" Kakashi sighed, leaning back to stare more casually up at their attacker, "If it isn't the Hidden Mist's Momochi Zabuza-kun…" Then he glanced briefly back at his genin and their client before refocusing on the opponent, "You all get back. This isn't an ordinary opponent." He raised his hand to his headband and moved to raise it from his, until now, hidden eye. "In fact, it might be difficult unless I do this…"

"…Sharingan Kakashi…" Momochi finally spoke up, "Sorry, but that old man is mine."

'Sharingan!?" Sasuke thought in shock, eyes pulled almost magnetically to their sensei, while Tazuna and Sakura blinked confusion and fright. Naruto and Kakashi managed to keep their attention on the enemy.

"…Protect Tazuna, manji formation." Kakashi said as he finally raised his hitai-ate completely. "That's all the teamwork you'll need here."

"Zabuza, first, you'll have to fight me," Kakashi declared, but everyone's attention was on the eye he had just revealed. Three coma-like marks spun steadily in the red iris of the eye, orbiting the dark pupil hypnotically as the jounin stared with half-lidded eyes up at the missing-nin.

"Ah," the rouge ninja said as he glared down at them, "So, I get to see the famous sharingan already…" He huffed in amusement, "I'm honored."

"Sharingan..?" Sakura asked quietly, confused.

"The sharingan…" Sasuke murmured, "The eye that is said to give one the ability to defeat any type of nin, gen, or taijutsu. It is one of the most powerful doujutsu (Eye techniques) in the world, but that's not the limit of its power," the boy finished, loudly enough that they could all hear him.

"Exactly," Momochi finished for him, "What's even scarier is that that eye allows you to copy an enemy's techniques once you see them use them with it. When I was a member of Kirigakure, we kept bingo books that had your name in them, Hatake Kakashi. Sharingan Kakashi: the man who is said to have copied over a thousand jutsu – the Copy Nin."

While Sakura was being surprised by how famous Kakashi apparently was, Sasuke was just confused and incredulous. '…What's going on here…?' he thought, 'The sharingan is a kekkai genkai (bloodline limit) that only appears in elite members of the Uchiha clan… How is it possible, that he has it…?' Naruto himself was completely silent, and seemed distracted by something.

Kakashi just remained still, choosing not give a response. The others' attention was also once more focused on the situation as Momochi crouched down on his sword and said, "Now, let's put an end to all this talking," he declared. "It's time for me to kill that old man." As the three genin fell back into a protection formation and Kakashi stepped forward, he continued, "But it seems that I'll have to defeat you first, Kakashi."

.-.

While the others in his group hand focused on the enemy before their eyes, more than likely unable to sense the other person that had shown up at the same time as Zabuza, Naruto had focused completely on trying to precisely locate them. Eventually he pinpointed the individual; he or she was crouched in a tree about fifty meters from the one Zabuza had chosen to land in. When they still didn't do anything but watch even when Zabuza flung himself from his perch atop his sword and appeared on the nearby pond with the immense blade on his back, and then proceeded to use the Kirigakure no jutsu (Hidden in the Mist technique) to envelop their senses in a thick mist, Naruto made the decision to focus on the immediate threat instead, though he tried to keep a small portion of his attention on where the other person was in case of a sneak attack.

"He's gone!" Sakura cried in surprise, when less than a second after initiating his technique, Zabuza completely disappeared into the mist he had created.

"He'll come after me first," Kakashi briefly attempted to reassure them, before beginning to relate everything he could about Zabuza while he still could. "As a member of the Hidden Mist, he was known as an expert in silent assassination. You won't even notice im before you're already dead. Be careful; it's not like I can use this sharingan perfectly, after all." It wasn't very heartening, honestly, and likely had the opposite of the intended effect.

While Sakura and Sasuke tensed in agitation at his words, Naruto kept as calm as he could, and focused on tracking Zabuza's spiritual presence as he moved silently through the mist around them. When he was unable to locate his presence precisely, he finally turned to the consciousness of his blade, which had been on high alert in his mind since they had first sensed the brief presence in the bushes only minutes earlier.

'Can you find him?' he asked, still making his own attempts as he did.

'_Yes._' The zanpakuto responded. '_Do you want my assistance this time?_ He asked, unruffled, but curious.

'Yeah; this isn't an opponent that I can fight while holding back as much as I have been…' He trailed off.

'_Very well then._' Mugetsu said, '_I will be here if you need to call upon me…_' then Mugetsu himself trailed off as well, and carefully linked his senses with those of his wielder.

Naruto hummed inwardly with satisfaction as his eyes narrowed on his immediate surroundings in a mixture of anticipation and nerves. His senses expanded further and clearer with the addition of those of the sword and the main focus of his attention immediately narrowed in on Zabuza as he finally placed his position in the mist. Speaking of which…"It's getting thicker," Naruto murmured quietly aloud, as said fog curled tighter around them in thick, opaque wisps.

Then Zabuza's voice growled out of the air around them, seeming to come from everywhere at once, "Eight points:…"

"Huh? What?!" Sakura uttered sharply, confused and scared as the voice continued.

"…the liver, lungs, spine, clavicle vein, jugular vein, brain, kidneys, and heart…" Zabuza's voice drawled menacingly out of the fog. "I wonder…which vital point should I go after…?" He almost sounded like he was about to break into cruel laughter; very much like he was enjoying toying with their fear immensely.

He punctuated his last words with a strong burst of killing intent, startling Kakashi, and paralyzing most of the genin, as well as the client, with fear. Naruto scoffed slightly inwardly, having felt worse from the Kyuubi the few times he had encountered him before most of his power was stripped away; and Mugetsu himself was much scarier when he got even slightly serious. He then watched out the corner of his eyes as Sasuke and Sakura were frozen in place just as firmly as Tazuna was.

Even as he tracked Zabuza through the fog, the blond watched nervously as Sasuke slowly raised his kunai in the direction of his own throat. He was actually about to say something, when Kakashi beat him to it, "Sasuke." Just by saying his name in such an uncharacteristically stern voice, the jounin immediately caught not just the brunet's attention, but the rest of theirs as well. "Don't worry," the man said strongly, "I'll protect all of you, even at the cost of my life." He tilted his head around far enough that they could see most of his face and eye-smiled at them, clearly grinning even though the bottom half of his face was completely covered by his mask. "I don't let my comrades die." He declared.

"We'll see about that..!" Zabuza's voice echoed through the air again in response.

'Fast..!' was all Naruto could think. Before Kakashi has spoken, Zabuza had been slowly circling them in the mist. His sensei's words must provoked him though – and he only had a split second to wonder if that was Kakashi's intention in the first place, before he felt a spike of energy from the man before a small portion of it split off and appeared with a swirl of mist right in the middle of the three genin's formation. 'A clone…but what kind..?'

As he'd felt the clone shunshin-ing towards them, Naruto's hand immediately went for his sword. By the time it had arrived, dramatically crouched between them with its copy of the missing-nin's blade held ready, Naruto's blade was fully out of its sheath and, in less than a second, buried in the clone's gut before it even had a chance to move or speak. Water dripped from the wound.

Kakashi must have seen or detected Zabuza's actions as well, because he was already moving, and before the water clone could dispel it also had a kunai buried in its chest as well. Then another Zabuza was behind Kakashi, even as the clone collapsed into a puddle of water, oversized sword ready to slice through the Konoha jounin. Sasuke, who had quickly come back to himself in the sudden rush of action, only had time to call out a useless warning – "Behind you!" – before the blade swung and sliced his sensei in half.

There was a brief moment of shock, and Sakura screamed, before 'Kakashi' also collapsed into a stream of water.

'No way…' was all Zabuza could think, stunned, 'Mizu Bunshin (Water Clone)? He copied it, even in this mist..?'

Then the same kunai that had stabbed into his first clone, still dripping water, met his throat. "Don't move!" The command came from behind him, where Kakashi now stood. "It's over."

"Wow…" Sakura murmured, awed.

Sasuke remained silent, still shocked at how fast everything had happened, and Naruto lowered his blade from where it had thrust into the stomach of the clone, eyes keenly locked on the confrontation before him as his enhanced senses stretched through the area around him.

Zabuza's eyes lost their shock and grew serious at the threat, though his eyes quickly flicked over the young boy that had just got a killing blow in on his previous clone before Kakashi had even got there. "Heheh…" he chuckled harshly, sarcasm coating his voice, "It's over…? You don't get it, Kakashi. There's no way you could defeat me with those monkey-like imitations."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed in on him as he spoke, his instincts telling him that something wasn't right with this. He was speaking far too calmly for having a knife to his throat. Naruto, as he watched on, ground his teeth in frustration, 'They're just far enough away that I won't be able to do anything quickly enough! Can't you see it yourself, Kakashi-sensei? That's just another –'

But before he could even finish the thought, Zabuza spoke again, "Heh, but that was rather impressive of you," He commented almost idly, as Kakashi allowed him to stand straight instead of keeping in a crouch. "When you spoke then, you had already copied my Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu (Water Clone Technique)."

_- I don't let my comrades die. –_

"You had your clone say those words," the rogue nin continued, "To attract my attention, to provoke me, while the real you stayed hidden in the mist and watched. Nice," he mockingly complimented, "But…

Naruto's eyes widened as he said that. 'I didn't even notice when Kakashi did that…' he thought.

'_You need to work more on evenly splitting your attention. You have to pay as much attention to your allies as you do to your opponents, Naruto._' Mugetsu reprimanded lightly.

'Yeah…' Naruto murmured back silently, most of his attention preoccupied with locating the real Zabuza again. He'd lost him in the confusion, but he could tell that the one before him was merely another clone. It had no soul. 'There..!' he finally thought triumphantly, 'But wait, he's…' Zabuza's real body was rapidly closing in on Kakashi, and before Naruto could get out a word of warning, the missing-nin was behind the jounin again – and this time, the Kakashi before him wasn't a clone.

"…I'm also not that easy." Zabuza growled lowly.

Kakashi cut into the neck of the clone before him, immediately dispersing it into water, and ducked, crouching low to the ground as the cleaver-like sword flew dangerously close to his head above him. The blade passed over him in a swift rush of force, its motion carrying it past its target and around to dig into the ground behind its wielder. Zabuza gripped the but of the long handle of his weapon with a free hand, and utilized the momentum of his own swing to increase the force of the harsh kick he landed a moment later on Kakashi's side.

As Kakashi was flung towards the pond, Zabuza thought, 'Now!' and turned towards his now mostly undefended target. He was halted in his motion by the twisted scraps of metal that now littered the ground around him. 'Makibishi (Caltrops)?' he thought incredulously. But in the brief moment he was delayed, Tazuna was once again blocked from him by the blonde genin that had wounded his clone earlier. He growled inwardly, and thought, turning his attention towards the jounin that was now surfacing in the water, 'I have to deal with him first.' As he disappeared in a swift shunshin, he muttered to himself, "Foolish." It was impossible to tell if he were reprimanding himself, or the man he had just flung into the water.

As Kakashi surfaced in the water, he was struggling far more than he should have been. 'What…' he thought, 'is this? The water is…heavy…'

"Idiot." The condemnation came from behind him, where Zabuza was now standing on the water, as he flipped through a short series of hand seals. As Kakashi's eyes widened in shock, the missing-nin thought to himself, 'Suirou no Jutsu (Water Prison Technique.'

"Trying escape to the water…" he said, as Kakashi was enveloped in a spherical, layered cage of water, controlled by his right hand. "Big mistake; now I have you in an inescapable prison!" As Zabuza looked at him, his eyes narrowed dangerously, confident now of his victory. "It makes things so much easier for me if you can't move, you know. But we'll finish this later, Kakashi," He raised his free hand into a one handed ram sign, and continued, "But first, I'll take care of them."

As he spoke two water clones erupted from the water in between the two men and the shoreline, and quickly took the only step needed to have their feet on solid ground. "Heh," one of them scoffed, his voice exactly like the original's, "Wearing those headbands, prancing around, acting like ninja…A real ninja is someone who has survived countless brushes with death." It said scornfully. "You kiddies can't be considered 'shinobi'."

Naruto blinked at them blankly for a short moment, as all the things had done with Mugetsu over the past few years – the memories of the day of his birth (case in point: The Shinigami was there), the ghosts he has met, the times that he nearly died trying to learn how to utilize Mugetsu's power properly – flew through his mind. 'Really,' he thought. 'I have the weapon of a Shinigami - a messenger of death - in my hand right now…and he thinks he can talk to me about brushes with it? Really?'

When the other clone continued, going on about bingo books, and being a real ninja, Naruto finally couldn't help himself. He laughed. He laughed loud and long, as his teammates stared at him like he was completely out of his mind, his sensei like he desperately wished he could get out of his prison in order to shut him up before he really pissed off his opponent, and Zabuza, in a bewildered, angered kind of shock.

As his mirth finally subsided, the boy took a deep breath, as seriousness swept over his face. "You," he said then, as calmly as if they'd just met on a street, "you really…" he chuckled again, "well, even if I did explain it to you, you probably wouldn't get it, and if you did, you probably wouldn't believe me…" he trailed off, shaking his head again. His sword, already drawn, settled into a ready position before him. "Regardless though, it's going to take more than a couple of clones for you to get rid of me."

"That's some arrogance," one of the clones smirked, "But do you really stand a chance?"

"Naruto!" Kakashi called from his prison, "What do you think you're doing?! You guys need to get out of here! Run! As long as he's keeping me trapped here, he won't be able to move! The clones won't be able to follow you too far – they can't go too far from his real body! You need to focus on the mission! Your duty is to protect the client!"

Naruto paused at that. As much as he wanted to fight right now, everything Kakashi had just said was true. He turned to where Tazuna and his teammates now stood, having long since regained their feet after having been blown all over the place by Kakashi and Zabuza's brief skirmish. His eyes glanced over Sasuke and Sakura before landing on Tazuna, where he stood behind them, "Old man…" he said, an unspoken question in his voice.

"Well," The bridge builder said, a strange smile spreading across his face, half hidden by his mustache, "I planted this seed myself; I'm not going to say that I want to live so much now that I'd stop you. I'm sorry. Fight as much as you want."

"Pft," Sasuke smirked, turning to glance at Naruto, "You hear that?"

"Yeah," Naruto grinned back, and turning to face Zabuza's clones again, continued, "You ready for this?"

"Hah…" the closest clone let out a short, dark burst of laughter, "Hahaha…you kids will never grow up, huh? You going to keep playing ninja like that?

"What was that?" Naruto burst out angrily.

"When was about your age," the real man finally growled, free hand outstretched, eyes wide with bloodlust as his killing intent dropped down on the genin again, "These hands were already dyed red with blood."

Eyes wide, the genin stared as Kakashi finally spoke up again, his words reaching them too despite the distance and his quiet tone, "The devil…Zabuza…"

"Ah," the missing-nin said with edged lightness, "So you've heard a little about it then."

"Long ago," Kakashi said louder, hair waving in the water around him as he spoke, "In Kirigakure (The Village Hidden in the Mist), also called the Bloody Mist, there was a final obstacle to becoming a ninja."

"Hmm…" Zabuza hummed thoughtfully, looking down at the trapped man, "You already know about that graduation exam." He stated.

"Graduation exam?" Naruto repeated, "What graduation exam?"

As Zabuza just laughed, all three genin and their client just got more nervous. Then he looked up at them and said calmly, "Fights to the death between the students." As their eyes widened in shock and horror, the man continued relentlessly. "Friends who had trained and eaten at the same table, friends who had helped each other and shared dreams with each other, pitted against each other to go at it until one of them loses their life." He elaborated cruelly.

"…Terrible," Sakura murmured.

"Ten years ago, Kirigakure's graduation exam was forced to change." Kakashi interrupted, "This change came when the previous year, a devil appeared."

"Change?" Sakura asked, eyes wide, as Zabuza remained silent, "What change? What did this 'devil' do?"

"Without pause…or hesitation…" Kakashi reluctantly continued, "A young boy – not even a ninja – killed over a hundred of the students." He looked at Zabuza as he finished, and it was obvious that the 'young boy', was Zabuza himself.

"That…" Zabuza finally spoke, "sure was…" His eyes curled up in recalled pleasure, a vicious grin visibly stretching his mouth behind the bandages that covered it. He drawled it out slowly, reveling in the renewed fear of the genin before him, "…fun."

And that was when his clones attacked, taking the opening caused by his words as an opportunity. They both charged forward, heading towards the one who had challenged them first – Naruto. Splitting to come at him from two sides, they reached him in only a few seconds, barely giving him time to react, swords raised to get rid of the second biggest threat after Kakashi quickly – or so they thought. Because of Mugetsu, Naruto's specialty was speed, and those seconds were long enough.

Even if they were on his position in seconds, by the time they got there he had already disappeared, and as they went to strike at his already empty spot and stopped, confused, he reappeared behind them. Then Naruto _moved_, swinging his blade into a lethal arc too quickly for them to respond effectively. In the blink of an eye, both clones were bisected at the waist. A moment later, they collapsed into a pair of useless puddles before him.

"Hey, you eyebrow-less freak," the blond boy said into the stunned silence that came in the aftermath of his slaughter of the two clones, "I don't care what you have to say about being a ninja, or the blood that's on your hands, and not on mine – I don't care about any of it." He turned to face the stunned, angered face of the Demon of the Mist and said, "Put this in your damn bingo book," He raised his sword and pointed it at the rogue ninja, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage of Konohagakure, and I won't die here."

As they all looked at him in surprise and slight awe, he turned slightly back to bring his teammates into his line of sight and said, "Sasuke, listen up. I've got a plan."

Said boy looked at him and thought, 'A plan, in this situation…well, whatever,' and smirked, "Teamwork, from you?" he snarked.

Naruto just smirked back and threw his pack to him. Sasuke caught it instinctively and looked up at him again when the blond said, "Be ready, this is going to go fast."

"Don't get ahead of yourself, you damn brat," Zabuza said, twisting his free hand into another one handed seal. Four clones erupted from the water simultaneously, and once more stepped onto land.

"I'm not," the boy grinned, and charged forward, sword held out to his side.

Behind him, Sasuke quickly dug through the pack and found what Naruto had wanted him to find. 'I see, so that's the plan…' He quickly with drew a large, folded fuma shuriken and dropped the pack to the ground. 'Good thinking, Naruto.'

As Sasuke discovered the shuriken, Naruto had met the clones. Ducking and weaving through the rapid swings of the four swords, he thought, 'I see…He can only swing it in a few different ways, since it's so big – it's probably the speed he does it at that gets most of his opponents…' He leaned out of the way of a downward slash, and deflected another that tried slashing at his side from another clone. 'His strength is no joke either, even if these are just clones, but…' He took another step forward, and sped up once again, reiatsu pulsing around him, though only he could feel it, 'It's not enough, even if there are four of them.'

He finally swung his own sword, and a clone shattered into water around his blade. Then another fell, then another, until there was only one clone between him and the water.

Behind him, Sasuke spun the giant shuriken before him, the four dark blades of the weapon gleaming as he held it out. He leapt into the air then, and flipped in midair to give it more momentum before hurling it forward, and over the last clone – a clone that burst into water as Naruto sliced the arm off of the water construct as he blew past it.

The water was right in front of him, but Naruto didn't even hesitate, and just kept running, not on the water, the way Zabuza was, but on the air just over it, hidden in the shadow of the shuriken as it spun straight towards the real Zabuza, who was still holding Kakashi imprisoned in the Suirou (Water Prison) on the water.

"A shuriken won't do anything, even if you're aiming at the real me!" Zabuza exclaimed, and snatched the weapon out the air before it could do anything to him. For a split second it seemed as if the attack had failed, but Naruto was already there. Skidding on the air above the water, he didn't cause even a ripple of disturbance on the water's surface as his blade swung at the man that controlled the water prison, and met flesh.

Blood spurted into the air, and the water prison shattered as Zabuza just barely moved his limb in time to stop it from being completely removed from his body.

Naruto continued his skid across the air, out of reach of the missing-nin even as he finally lost his balance from the awkward swing, and fell to one knee on the seemingly solid layer of thin air between himself and the water. His bloody sword helped keep him steady as he slid to a halt.

Blood dripping from his now severely injured arm, Zabuza snarled with maddened anger as he turned towards the child that had just injured him, spinning the shuriken in his other hand. 'This…damn brat,' he snarled to himself, and he swung his arm forward, ready to release the shuriken on the unprepared blond kneeling on the air above the water less than ten yards from him. 'And how is he _doing_ that, the little – '

But before he could even release it though, blood once more spurted into the air as a gloved fist stopped the windmill shuriken in its tracks.

"Nice job, Naruto, and Sasuke too." Kakashi complimented, staring into the angry eyes of the man he was blocking. "You guys have really begun to grow up."

Naruto looked up, and seeing Kakashi blocking Zabuza from attacking him, grinned sheepishly. "Thanks."

"Heh," Zabuza grunted, relenting on the pressure he had been putting on the now halted shuriken in his anger as his forcibly suppressed it. "I guess I got distracted and released the jutsu," he attempted to brush it off.

"No," Kakashi wasn't about to let him to that, and let his eyes flicker down to the gushing wound in the other man's dangling arm. "You were forced to release it."

Zabuza finally pulled away and discarded the shuriken as a vein of anger pulsed in his temple. "Bah." He quickly put some distance between them, as Kakashi's sharingan eye began to spin.

"I'll tell you now…" Kakashi continued, lowering his fist.

"…I won't fall for the same technique twice."

* * *

**Author's Note**

* * *

And…I think I'll leave it off there.

A lot went on this chapter, and I really hope you like it. I've been working on it for a while – and then I finally realized that I was well past nine thousand words (In fact, this is my longest chapter in this story to date) on it, and should probably leave the rest of the fight for the next chapter. Now, as I finally have the rest of the Wave Arc fully planned out, hopefully the next chapter will be out much sooner than this one was.

But, I also have my semester finals in college, as well as a lot of holiday stuff going on in the next month or so, so it might not happen 'till December. If so, I can only hope that you guys will continue to be patient.

~ Aljan Moonfire


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